
Class ^ LBjiUX 

Book_ J± 

Coijyriglit]^^ 

COPyRIGHT DEPOSrr. 



HDcntal anb fIDoral Science. 

ETHICS, A MANUAL OF. By J. S. Mackenzie, M.A., Professor 
of Logic and Philosophy in the University College of South Wales 
and Monmouthshire, formerly Fellow of Trinity College, Cam- 
bridge. Fam-th Edition, revised and partly rewritten. $1.50. 

Contents:— Introduction. — The Scope of Ethics— The Eelation 
of Ethics to Other Sciences— The Divisions of the Suhject — Book I. 
Prolegomena, chiefly Psychological. — Desire and Will — Motive 
and Intention^Character and Conduct — Evolution of Conduct — The 
Growth of the Moral Judgment — The Significance of the Moral Judg- 
ment. Book II. — Theories of the Moral Standard. — The De- 
velopment of Ethical Thought— The Types of Ethical Theory— The 
Standard as Law — The Standard as Happiness — The Standard as Per- 
fection—The Bearing of Theory on Practice. Book III. — The Moral 
Life. — The Social Unity — Moral Institutions — The Duties — The Vir- 
tues — The Individual Life — Moral Pathology — Moral Progress — Ethics 
andMetaphysics.— Appendix.— Index. 

" Mr. Mackenzie has performed with skill a much needed task ; it could not be 
tetter done." — GiKirdiini. 

" In wi-iting this book Mr. Mackenzie has produced an earnest and striking con- 
tribution to the ethical literature of the time." — Mind. 

"The volume is a thorough and independent discussion of moral science and 
philosophy. Each of the chapters is written with great care, and with a freshness 
and originality that take the work quite out of the category of the ordinary text- 
book." — Journal of Education. 

" The book is written with lucidity and an obvious mastery of the whole bearing 
of the subject, and it would be difficult to name a more trustworthy or a more 
attractive manual for beginners." — Stundard. 

"The science of ethics is seldom presented in so compact a form as here. The 
language is crisp and forcible, and the thought is presented with a transparent 
clearness that leaves nothing in doubt. The tone of the book is admirable." 
^£durational News. 

■ "This book has already conmiended itself to students by the freshness of its style 
and the thoroughness with which it grapples with moral problems." — Daily 
Telegraph. 



PSYCHOLOGY, A MANUAL OF. By G. F. Stout, M.A., late Fellow 
of St. John's College, Cambridge, Examiner in Mental and Moral 
Science in the University of London. $1.50. 

" It is unnecessary to speak of this work except in terms of praise. There is a 
refreshing absence of sketchiness ab >ut the book, and a clear desire manifested to 
help the student in the subject." — Saturday Review. 

"The book is a model of lucid argument, copious in its facts and will be 
invaluable to students of what is, although one of the youngest, perhaps the most 
interesting of the sciences." — Critic. 

"Mr. Stout has produced a work which will be invaluable to the nervous and 
bewildered undergraduate. He deals very lucidly with his subject." — Manchester 
Courier, 



Gordy's A Broader Elementary Education, By the author 
of New Psychology, $}.25. Questions on each chapter, 

Gordy's New Psychology. Familiar talks to teachers 
and parents on how to observe the child-mind. 
Questions on each Lesson. $t,25. JJth thousand! 

Th« Foundations of Education. By Dr. Levi Seeley. 
author of " History of Education." In this book the 
author, an able teacher and superintendent of longf 
experience, recounts from his experience or the bene- 
fit of teachers, those very many things, the avoiding 
which or the doing which, as the case may be, makes 
for failure or success accordingly. An inspiration — 
not only to the teacher, but also to the parent who 
reads it. To possess this book is like having a friend 
and counsellor always at one's elbow. $1.00. 

Methods of Teaching Gymnastics, Anderson. $1.25. 

Best Methods of Teaching in Country Schools. $t.25. 

200 Lessons Outlined in Arithmetic, Geography, 
Grammar, United States History, Physiology. A 
splendid help for busy, time-pressed teachers. $t,25. 

Mistakes of Teachers corrected by common sense (the 
famous Preston Papers). Solves difiSculties not 
explained in textbooks, which daily 
perplex the conscientious teacher. 
Ne'w Enlarged Edition — fourth large 
printing. A veritable hit. $t.OO, 

Page's Theory and Practice of Teaching, 

With Questions and Answers. Paper, 
50c, Cloih, $J, The teachers' standby, 

Roark's Outline of Pedagogy. A Working 

Manual. Aptly and briefly described 

as an indispensable tool for " teachers 

in the trenches." Interleaved for notes. 75 ccnts« 
Stout's Manual of Psychology, Introduced in its first 

year into more than fourscore of colleges and 

universities in this country and in Canada. $I.50« 
The Perceptionalist* Hamilton's Mental Science. By 

special typographical arrangement adapted to either 

a longer or shorter course. $2.00, 
Mackenzie's Manual of Ethics, The most successful 

text-book on ethics ever published. Adopted and 

used in over two hundred Colleges, Universities and 

Normal Schools. New, Fourth Edition. $1,50, 
Continental Copy Books* Numbers i to 7. 75 cents dozen. 




Outline 
of 

1 he science of Study 



hy 
James G. Moore 



HINDS & NOBLE, Publishers 
31-33-35 West 15th Street, New York City 

Schoolbooks of all publishers at one store 



LBIOIS 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Twc Copies Receivoo 

OCT 7 1903 

Copynght Entry 

CUSS ^ XXc, No 

COPY B. 






Copyright, 1899, 1903, by Jas. G. Moore. 



PREFACE 

To see an object is a simple act. To perceive 
its outlines accurately is an act of higher quality. 
But to behold a thing in the fullness of its mani- 
fold interrelations is a power partly inherited, 
partly acquired, whose rarity is not less than its 
priceless worth. Nowhere is this comparison 
more prominently forced upon our notice than in 
the field of educational work. With the average 
teacher the educational process has consisted 
chiefly in furnishing his students instruction per 
capita. With a rapidly increasing minority the 
student himself has been studied, and his inter- 
ests, his limitations, and his status in general 
carefully marked out. But with only an exceed- 
ingly few has the problem of educational work 
been dealt with in full recognition of the organic 
interrelations of its physical, psychological, and 
sociological aspects and with a comprehensive 
grasp of the whole student period in its bearing 
upon the future life work of the student. 

Instruction is necessary, of course, and funda- 
mental. But the student himself must be under- 



m 



PREFACE 

Stood, and his instruction adapted to his natural 
conditions of development, both those conditions 
which apply to him in common with all students, 
and also those conditions peculiarly individual. 
Further, the social and industrial life surround- 
ing him must be carefully studied, as determin- 
ing to a considerable extent the whole character 
of his future life work. For education ought to 
prepa'-e the student directly and organically, yet 
broadly and thoroughly, for a life work. There 
can be no other justification for our splendid 
array of educational institutions. In fact, there 
can be no other justification for our very exis- 
tence. It is not enough for us to be. We must 
do — do something worthy, and do it well. Yet 
society is so organized that thorough preparation 
for a life work necessarily involves a preparation 
for usefulness in certain fields of correlated activ- 
ities. This brings an obligation for trained 
social service. Besides, most persons feel an 
active interest in certain subjects not in any way 
connected with their professional interests, and 
oftentimes achieve valuable results along such 
lines. To provide for such training and to fur- 
nish general culture along those great lines of 
activity not included in the student's professional 

iv 



PREFACE 

training becomes an essential part of a complete 
scheme of study. 

It will not be expected that so comprehensive 
a subject can be dealt with, in this limited com- 
pass, in other than general outlines. In fact, the 
only apology offered for the existence of this 
volume is the prayer that it may aid in marking 
out more clearly the fundamental features of our 
educational work. At some future time it is 
hoped to take up each great stage more at 
length. 

While a discussion of this character may, of 
right, be expected to be thoroughly awake to the 
best of recent pedagogical thought and expe- 
rience, and fearless in criticism where occasion 
seems to demand, the writer has tried to keep 
before him that it is not less important to be 
catholic in spirit and conservative respecting the 
advocacy of radical departures from established 
usages Lnd customs. It has been above all things 
else the endeavor to deal in an impartial and 
scholarly, yet simple and practical, spirit with 
these, the most profound principles of student 
life. 

J. G. M. 

Monmouth, 111., July, 1903. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 

I. INTRODUCTORY. 

A. Need of Comprehensive, Organic Conception 

OF Educational Work. 

B. Is There a Science of Study? 

C. Need of Investigation. 

II. THE DEFECTIVE ORGANIZATION OF OUR 
EDUCATIONAL WORK. 

A. Present Spirit of Educational Investiga- 

tion ; The Spirit of Combination and Or- 
ganization. 

B. Existing Arrangement of Educational In- 

stitutions; Our Common Schools; Earlier 
Secondary Study ; Relations between Sec- 
ondary Schools and Colleges ; Character of 
High Schools and of Colleges Compared ; 
Relations between Colleges and Professional 
Schools; Character of Our Professional 
Schools. 
-C. Can an Organic Educational System be 
Constructed? 

D. A Preliminary to the Establishment of 

Such System. 

III. THE ORGANIC BASIS OF STUDY. 

A. General Inquiry. 

B. Is There a Science of Education ; First 

Step in Investigation ; Position in Life De- 
termined by Conception of Education. 

C. Some Educational Aims; Chinese; Spartan; 

Ascetic; Scholastic; Mystic; Radical Scien- 
tific; Classical; "Liberal;" "Practical." 

D. True Principles of Education; Chief Aim; 

Foundations ; Method ; Means ; Summary. 

E. Our Educational Work Disconnected. 

F. Organic Basis of Study. 

G. Fundamental Principles of Organic Sys- 

tem. 

vii 



CONTENTS 



IV. THE ORGANIC STRUCTURE OF STUDY. 

A. Three Great Lines of Inquiry. 

B. Chief Aim of Study ; Basic Principle ; 

Knowledge; Intellectual Discipline; Es- 
thetic Culture; Social Standing; Fullness of 
Personality. 

C. True Scheme of Study is Organic; Corre- 

lation of Studies; Correlation Increases 
with the Higher Life. 

D. Complete Scheme of Study ; Preliminary 

General View ; Great Divisions of Study ; 
Departments and Stages Distinguished ; 
General Foundation Study and General 
Culture Study Distinguished; General 
Foundation Stage ; Leading Stage ; Five 
Grand Divisions of Knowledge, Basis of 
Classification ; Arrangement of Courses of 
Study ; Passage from Leading Stage to Pro- 
fessional Preparatory Stage ; Principles 
Determining Quantity of Work for Pro- 
fessional Preparatory and Professional 
Stages. 

E. Summary of Principles Governing Each 

Stage; Application of Principles; Basis of 
Semi-Professional Study; Fundamental Pur- 
pose of General Culture Study. 

V. THE GENERAL FOUNDATION STAGE. 

A. Conflicting C onceptions of Complete 

Scheme of Study ; Due to Defective Un- 
derstanding of Principles of Study. 

B. Function ; Two Classes of Students. 

C. Studies ; Distribution of Five Grand Divi- 

sions. 

D. Relative Values of Studies ; Disciplinary 

View, Language, Mathematics, Geography, 
History, Studies of Secondary Importance ; 
Herbartian Vieiv, Three Classes of Studies, 
History, Natural Science, Mathematics, The 
Languages; Rational View, Gist of Differ- 
ence between Disciplinary and Herbartian 
Views a Problem of Relative Emphasis, 
Unity of Duty and Interest, Principles 
Governing Snlntion of Problem. 

E. ^Esthetic Training; Music, Art. 

viii 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER 

F. Principles Governing Length of Stage; 

Subjective, Economy of Educative Effort. 

G. Change of Emphasis. 

VI. THE LEADING STAGE. 

A. Appearance of Special Interest. 

B. Basis of Leading Study. 

C. The Problem of Leading Study; Progress 

toward Recognition of This Special Interest. 

D. Conditions Determining Period of Leading 

Study ; Natural Development of Student ; 
Preliminary Requirements of General Foun- 
dation Study ; General Principle Govern- 
ing Length of Leading Stage ; Demands of 
Professional Preparatory Study ; As Con- 
ditioned by Normal Period of Entire 
Student Life. 

E. Principles of Progress. 

F. Character of Material. 

G. Critical Importance of This Stage. 
H. Problem Long Ignored by Educators. 

I. Profession-Study ; As Regular Study ; Ele- 
mentary Sociology The Basis of Profession- 
Study, Character of Elementary Sociologi- 
cal Study ; Biographical Study, Character 
of; Profession-Study, Character of; Rea- 
sonableness of Profession-Study, Example. 

VII. THE PROFESSIONAL PREPARATORY 

STAGE. 

A. Position in Complete Scheme of Study. 

B. Three-Fold Object; Professional Prepara- 

tory, Semi-Professional, General Culture. 

C. Professional Preparatory Study ; Disci- 

pline, Tools of Study, Comprehensive Pre- 
paratory Knowledge. 

D. Principles Governing Professional Pre- 

paratory Courses ; Examples. 

E. Semi-Professional Study; Principles Ap- 

plied ; Compensating Law of Public Service. 

F. Principles Determining Length of Stage; 

Psychological Development of the Student ; 
Sociological Limitations ; Nature of Par- 
ticular Life Work. 

ix 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER 

G. Domestic Science. 

H. Co-Education. 

I. Failure of Our Colleges to Practice their 
True Function ; Chief Reason for Weak- 
ness of College Training. 

VIII. THE PROFESSIONAL STAGE. 

A. Three-Fold Function. 

B. Principles Underlying Three-Fold Func- 

tion ; Social Demands ; Professional De- 
mands ; Demands of the Complete Life. 

C. Lines of Inquiry; Main Work, Pro- 

fessional Study Proper; Complementary 
Work, Semi-Professional and General 
Culture Study. 

D. Practical Application. 

E. Professional Study; Teaching; Agriculture, 

Business ; Domestic Science ; Law, Great 
Changes in ; Spirit of Medical and of The- 
ological Schools Compared ; Christian Soci- 
ology ; Christian Pedagogy, the Great Theo- 
logical Need ; Journalism. 

F. Complementary Study; Recognition by 

Schools ; Relative Amount. 

G. Character of Semi-Professional Study; 

Principles Applied. 

H. Principles Determining Length of Pro- 
fessional Stage. 

I. Principles Governing General Culture 
Study; Examples. 

IX. SUMMARY. 

A. General Summary. 

B. Educational Creed. 



X 



CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTORY 

Need of Comprehensive, Organic Conception 
of Educational Work. — In dealing with any 
problem it is necessary first to search out its 
fundamental principles, and then to marshal 
these fundamental principles into a comprehen- 
sive, organic outline. It is not strange that one 
who does not understand the relation of the part 
to the whole should do his work wrongly. Much 
of the conflict in education to-day is due to the 
fact that the teacher, be he in whatever field, is 
apt to forget his relative position in the whole 
scheme of the student's career, and consequently 
to mistake the relative importance, and some- 
times even the real function, of his own work. 
In this way we have built up a series of loosely 
connected educational systems, one above the 
other, rather than one organic system extending 
throughout the entire period of student life from 
the kindergarten to and through the professional 



INTRODUCTORY 

school and into active life-work. We need, if 
possible, to organize our educational work upon 
the basis of a science. 

Is There a Science of Study ? — Is there a 
Science of Study? If so, why all this conflict of 
curricula? If there is a Science of Study, upon 
what basis shall it be determined ? Why are our 
educational institutions divided off into their 
present classification, as primary, grammar, sec- 
ondary, college, and professional schools? Is 
this classification an arbitrary creation of educa- 
tors, or has it been based upon the natural prin- 
ciples of life unfoldment of the student? What 
underlying principle, or set of principles, deter- 
mines the quantity and character of work re- 
quired by each of these classes of institutions? 
Has this work been carefully and closely adjusted 
to the great conditions of life unfoldment during 
the student period? Or, previous to this last, 
has the normal period of life which can best be 
spent in study — no less, no more — been ap- 
proximately determined, subject to physical, 
psychological, and sociological conditions; and, 
if so, upon what basis? Following this, has the 
period of student life been closely and scientifical- 



INTRODUCTORY 

ly observed, to notice what vital changes of atti- 
tude in the student occur during this period, and 
when, and their significance in determining 
courses of study ? Further, has the field of knowl- 
edge material been investigated and classified 
with direct reference to its value to the student, 
taking into consideration all the individual con- 
ditions of his development, as well as his socio- 
logical environments? Finally, has this classified 
study material been adjusted, in proportion to its 
relative value, into courses of study that were 
planned with direct reference to the conditions of 
student development and to the whole aim of 
study, so that the entire scheme of educational 
work from the kindergarten to the university 
shall be. rational and organic ; or, if this has not 
been done, are there any fundamental principles 
of education constituting a Science of Study by 
means of which such courses of study may be 
constructed ? 

Need of Investigation. — Such, in substance, 
are the great questions that confront everyone 
who is called to exercise a directive influence over 
the education of our youth. That the character 
of the work done in many of our educational 



INTRODUCTORY 

institutions leaves much yet to be desired is gen- 
erally recognized by leading educators, and it is 
also generally agreed that the interrelations be- 
tween the different grades of our educational 
work are still far from being organic. Surely, 
there are clearly defined principles upon which a 
rational and organic scheme of study, flexible, 
adaptable, and extending through the entire 
period of student life, may be scientifically 
wrought out. Let us investigate. 



4 



CHAPTER II. 

THE DEFECTIVE ORGANIZATION OF OUR EDUCA- 
TIONAL WORK 

Present Spirit of Educational Investigation. — 

Nothing at the present time is the subject of a 
profounder inquiry and discussion on the part of 
the educational pubHc than the interrelationship 
of our various educational institutions and the 
kind of work to be done by each institution. We 
have "made such wonderful advancement along a 
rapidly widening field of multiform activities in 
the past quarter of a century that many of the 
educational ideals of a few years ago are felt to 
be entirely inadequate now. This is not a mere 
meaningless reaction against the unpedagogical 
practices of the past. Rather, it is the expression 
of the new order of things. But a short time 
ago and he who dared to question the infallibility 
of our educational system — if the present ar- 



DEFECTIVE ORGANIZATION 

rangement may be rationally called a system — 
was denounced as an enemy of true education. 
With progress in other lines, however, has come 
the spirit of scholarly, dispassionate, thorough- 
going inquiry into our ways of preparing our 
youth for life work. Schools, colleges, and uni- 
versities are being weighed in the balance of an 
exacting public opinion. Courses of study that 
were once considered satisfactory, because they 
bore the ear-marks of time-honored usage, have 
been put to the test from the standpoint of pres- 
ent-day ideals, and discarded. Formerly, when 
we attempted to determine the value of a course 
of study we looked back into the past and in- 
quired what had been done. This inquiry seemed 
all-sufficient. Now, we are striving to adjust 
educational work to present conditions; still 
keeping an eye upon the best achievements of the 
past, it is true, but looking more intently into 
the future. 

The Spirit of Combination and Organization. — We 
are beginning to realize that no scheme of educa- 
tion is rational and complete which is not closely 
organic from the time of entrance into the kinder- 
garten to the end of the professional course. 



EXISTING ARRANGEMENT 

The spirit of combination and organization, 
which is becoming so powerful in the commer- 
cial world through the formation of gigantic 
business enterprises of a magnitude undreamed 
of by our fathers, is also making itself felt in the 
realm of pedagogical effort. This has brought 
to light many weaknesses in the current scheme 
of education, and we now see that the practice of 
some of our institutions of learning has, hereto- 
fore, been such as to make impossible a close, 
organic connection with the other related institu- 
tions. Steps have already been taken toward es- 
tablishing an organic relationship between all 
grades of educational work, and a number of 
vital changes for the better have been inaugu- 
rated: But there yet remains much to be accom- 
plished, and it may be worth while, in passing, to 
note briefly a few of the features which are es- 
pecially pertinent in this connection. 

Existing Arrangement of Educational Institu- 
tions. — The existing arrangement or sequence of 
educational institutions comprises the kinder- 
garten, the primary school, the secondary school, 
the college, and the professional school. Is this 
an ideal system? It has not proved such in the 



DEFECTIVE ORGANIZATION 

past. Our most eminent educators are agreed on 
that point. Yet, while the defects have been 
serious, and, in some cases, far-reaching, the 
scheme in itself is too valuable to be dispensed 
with. Considerable re-adjustment is needed, 
however, to bring the system into full harmony 
with the present conditions of society in its rela- 
tion to the various callings, trades, and profes- 
sions. 

Our Common Schools. — For generations an un- 
ceasing stream of animated and sometimes bitter 
controversy has been going on over the work of 
the common schools, and yet because of this vei*y 
fact, it may be, the common schools have more 
nearly fulfilled their proper function than has any 
other class of institutions in the whole field of 
pedagogical activity. This does not mean that 
the common schools have been free from serious 
faults or that they are now in no need of efforts 
for their betterment. The very democratic, cos- 
mopolitan character of the common school system 
has rendered it liable to a multitude of weak- 
nesses. But these have been weaknesses of 
method rather than of constitution and purpose. 
The avowed purpose for which the common 

8 



EARLIER SECONDARY STUDY 

schools were established — to prepare our youth 
for good citizenship — has been clung to with 
admirable consistency. All efforts to bring them 
into the narrow, specializing sphere of mere 
training schools for the various trades and pro- 
fessions have signally failed. Common school 
training has been with us, as it should be, a gen- 
eral preparation in the fundamental features of 
intelligent citizenship. This has been the con- 
stant aim, but the results have been, in many 
schools, far from satisfactory. Insufficient 
compensation for teachers and the consequent in- 
feriority of their preparation, resulting in a cer- 
tain woodenness of methods, has done much to 
lower the grade of work that may of right be 
expected from so excellent a plan of providing 
for the general education of the great mass of the 
people. 

Earlier Secondary Study.— Until recently it re- 
mained practically unquestioned that secondary 
instruction should not be begun before the ninth 
school year, or the first year of the present high 
school course. Of late the conviction has grad- 
ually been gaining ground that secondary studies 
should be taken up earlier. In many schools 



DEFECTIVE ORGANIZATION 

certain secondary studies, as algebra and a 
foreign language, have been introduced into the 
eighth grade with marked success ; and it is now 
being seriously discussed whether secondary 
studies may not be profitably commenced with 
the seventh school year. This, at least, has 
grown into a conviction with the leaders in pub- 
lic school work — that we have been giving too 
much time to elementary studies. We need a 
closer organization of our public school system 
with direct reference to this particular feature of 
school work. 

Relations between High Schools and Colleges. — 

Whatever the lack of organization at other 
points, it is admitted on all sides that a great 
breach lies between the high schools and the col- 
leges. The very origin of the two institutions 
has been the chief cause of this. The college has 
come down to the present as the representative of 
the classical learning of mediaeval times. The 
high school, on the other hand, sprang up as the 
people's college, the representative of modern 
educational ideas. Numerous attempts have 
been made to reconcile the antagonisms which 



lO 



HIGH SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES 

have thus arisen, but in the main these efforts 
have not been successful. 

It is interesting to look at ourselves through 
the eyes of an outsider, one of the most profound 
pedagogical thinkers of modern times : 

* " Notwithstanding appearances and the 
intentions of the Americans themselves, who 
in their defective' definition assign only high 
schools and similar institutions to this grade 
of instruction, American secondary instruc- 
tion comprises two parts and is divided into 
two periods — the high schools and the col- 
leges The Americans them- 
selves are the first to recognize the imperfec- 
tions of their system of secondary instruction, 
but are not, perhaps, so sensible as we would 
be of the incoherence of an organization which 
intrusts to different institutions the successive 
development of one uninterrupted grade of 
instruction. One inconvenience which results 
from this arrangement is that a majority of 
the high school pupils do not pursue their 

*Gabriel Compayre, in U. S. Education Report for 
1895-96, pp. 1168-1169. 

II 



DEFECTIVE ORGANIZATION 

studies further. While in France nearly all 
the pupils of the quatrieme continue their 
studies until the end of the secondary grade, 
hardly a sixth of the population of the Ameri- 
can high schools pass on into the colleges. 

The evil from which American 

secondary instruction suffers has an histor- 
ical explanation. When their existence began 
in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 
there was no intermediate grade between the 
primary schools and the colleges and univer- 
sities. Later, the State, or, to speak more cor- 
rectly, the States, took in hand the organiza- 
tion of the primary schools, which became the 
common schools, but they left the colleges and 
universities alone, as having independent life 
of their own. Then the directing powers pro- 
ceeded to intercalate an intermediate class of 
institutions between the common schools and 
the private colleges which should unite the 
two and also be public schools. This was the 
origin of the high schools, and as they were 
established at the public expense, it was nec- 
essary to take into account both their adapta- 
tion to the wants of the majority of the citi- 
12 



HIGH SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES 

zens who do not wish their children to have 
a complete course of secondary instruction, 
and also the needs of a small number of schol- 
ars who desire to enter college." 

Character of High Schools and Colleges Compared. 

— And yet, when we look closely into the char- 
acter of our high schools and colleges and com- 
pare their work with reference to its real value as 
a preparation for successful living, we are 
brought irresistibly to the conclusion that the 
high schools have been much nearer to their true 
educational position in an organic scheme than 
has been the case with the colleges. The high 
schools, while lacking in some essential respects, 
have been in touch with the people; the colleges 
have not. The high school courses, though per- 
haps not always the best, have been what the 
majority of the people wanted. On the other 
hand, the typical college course has been some- 
thing apart from the real life of the mass of the 
people — a relic of days gone by, an ideal out of 
tune with the busy age in which it strove to keep 
alive. 

There is no man in this country who stands 
higher in a comprehensive and profound grasp of 

13 



DEFECTIVE ORGANIZATION 

educational work, from the quasi-classical stand- 
point, than does the newly chosen head of 
Columbia University. He said recently : 

* " It is my belief that forces are now ac- 
tively at work which will result in the destruc- 
tion of the American college during the next 
generation, or, at least, in the destruction of 
its essential characteristics ; first, perhaps, as 
it exists in the larger universities, and then 
elsewhere. These forces are: On the one 
hand, the rapid development of secondary 
schools — particularly public high schools — 
and the extension of their work upward into 
the field hitherto occupied by the freshmen 
and sophomore years of the college ; and, on 
the other hand, the invasion of the junior and 
senior years of college work by professional 
and technical studies which are quite foreign 
in spirit, method, and purpose, to the studies 
which they are displacing 

" The growth of the public high schools and 
the upward extension of their work into the 

*Pres. Nicholas M. Butler, in A. M. Review of Re- 
views, Nov. 1902, pp. 589-590. 

14 



HIGH SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES 

field formerly occupied by the early years of 
the college, seem to me to be an unmixed pub- 
lic blessing I accept this change, 

therefore, as not only inevitable but beneficial. 
I recognize the ability of the best secondary 
schools to do not only as well as, but even 
better than, the colleges have been in the habit 
of doing the work of many of the studies of 
the freshmen and sophomore years. . . . 
College teaching has, at this point, failed to 
keep pace with the tremendous educational ad- 
vances of the last generation ; while the sec- 
ondary schools have availed themselves of the 
new tendencies and opportunities to the 
utmost. 

" On the other hand, I do not believe that 
the "displacement of the remainder of the col- 
lege course by professional and technical 
studies is either necessary, wise, or desirable." 

President Harper, of the University of Chi- 
cago, is severe in denunciation of the attitude 
maintained by the conservative " classical " 
colleges : 

* " A class of fifty men enter college, 

*William R. Harper, in U. S. Education Report, 189^-96, 
P- 1337. 

15 



DEFECTIVE ORGANIZATION 

no two of them alike in equipment, nat- 
ural taste, mental aptitude, or intellect- 
ual ability, and yet they have been re- 
quired to take the same studies, within the 
same number of hours, in the same way and 
with a sameness throughout that makes col- 
lege life for most of them a distasteful thing 
and an injury. I stand ready to assume the 
responsibility for the statement that many men 
are injured by college training, and that the 
cause of the injury in nine cases out of ten 
has been the inflexible, cast-iron routine of 
the college curriculum, which, let us congrat- 
ulate ourselves, is fast becoming a thing of 
the past. Less harm has been done than would 
otherwise have been the case, because as a 
matter of fact only men of a certain disposi- 
tion in days past have received an education. 
A great change has taken place among us to- 
day. Men of different types of mind, men 
who have no idea of becoming scholars, men 
who would be artists, mechanics, business 
men, as well as those who have in mind the 
ministry or the law, may receive an education 
adapted to their needs and capabilities. That 

i6 



HIGH SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES 

the doctrine of individualism is beginning to 
be respected is evident from the estabhshment 
of scientific schools, technological schools, and 
from the high position which these schools 
occupy now side by side with the college, a 
position to which they could not lay claim even 
so short a time as ten years ago. But the same 
sin (for it is a sin against God and against 
man) is still committed in most of our insti- 
tutions, even in those to which reference has 
been made. The individual is forgotten in 
the mass. In how many colleges is it the 
custom to take, as it were, a diagnosis of the 
mental constitution of each student similar to 
that which the physician makes of the body? 
It is not unusual in these days in connection 
with the work of the department of physical 
culture to have each man examined, the weak 
points of his body pointed out, and the prin- 
cipal exercises indicated that will help him. 
Is such a thing done for the mental constitu- 
tion? The present college methods too often 
compel failures, and it is more or less acci- 
dental that a man receives real and genuine 
help in his development. Why is it that so 

17 



DEFECTIVE ORGANIZATION 

many men achieve marked success in life, in 
their profession, and in every line of business, 
w^ho have never seen the inside of college 
halls? Because contact with men does for 
them what technical education is supposed to 
do for those who avail themselves of its advan- 
tages. The feeling against higher education 
which has existed is not without some justi- 
fication. A radical change is demanded — a 
change which shall shake to the foundations 
the educational structures that have been 
erected." 

The distinguished head of the great institution 
at Chicago is, by no means, the only eminent 
university executive who voices the sentiments 
just expressed. President Jordan, of Leland 
Stanford University, and President James, of 
Northwestern University, have declared them- 
selves in no uncertain manner. Says President 
Jordan, in terms somewhat milder, but not less 
decisive : 

* " The ordinary college course which has 

* David Starr Jordan, in U. S. Education Report, 
1894-S, p. 1280. 

18 



HIGH SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES 

been handed down from generation to gener- 
ation is purely conventional. It is a result 
of a series of compromises in trying to fit the 
traditional education of clergymen and gen- 
tlemen to the needs of men of a different so- 
cial era. The old college course met the spe- 
cial needs of nobody, and therefore was 
adapted to all alike. The great educational 
awakening of the last twenty years in Amer- 
ica has come from breaking the bonds of this 
old system. The essence of the new educa- 
tion is individualism. Its purpose is to give 
to each young man that training which will 
make a man of him. Not the training which 
a century or two ago helped to civilize the 
masses of the boys of that time, but that which 
will civilize this particular boy. One reason 
why the college students of 1895 are ten to one 
in number as compared with those of 1875, is 
that the college training now given is valuable 
to ten times as many men as could be reached 
or helped by the narrow courses of twenty 
years ago. In the university of to-day the 
largest liberty of choice in study is given to 
the student. The professor advises, the student 



19 



DEFECTIVE ORGANIZATION 

chooses, and the flexibility of the courses 
makes it possible for every form of talent to 
receive, proper culture. Because the college of 
to-day helps ten times as many men as that of 
yesterday could hope to reach it is ten times 
as valuable. The difference lies in the devel- 
opment of special lines of work and in the 
growth of the elective system. The power of 
choice carries with it the duty of choosing 
rightly. The ability to choose has made a man 
out of the college boy and transferred college 
work from an alternation of tasks and play to 
its proper relation to the business of life." 

Relations between Colleges and Professional Schools. 
— No one acquainted with higher educational 
work would maintain, for a moment, that there 
has all along been any direct relation, organic or 
even orderly, between the " liberal " course of 
the average college and the professional courses. 
The student, on finishing his college course, has 
ordinarily found himself obliged to enter upon a 
professional course so entirely different from his 
college work that he has lost valuable time in ad- 
justing himself to his new studies. Worse than 



20 



COLLEGES AND PROFESSIONAL SCHOOLS 

that, he has found himself handicapped by his 
ignorance of elementary and correlative knowl- 
edge bearing upon his work in the professional 
course — knowledge which he should have ac- 
quired in his college course. Like the entrance 
of most other great truths upon the field of 
human action, it has taken the college authorities 
a long time to realize that the chief function of 
a college course is to fit the student, directly and 
organically, not in a general disciplinary way, to 
benefit to the utmost by the professional course 
in the university. It can hardly be said that the 
majority of our colleges, as yet, realize their 
proper function in the general scheme of student 
life. True, many are converting the last two 
years of the course into preparatory work for 
the professional course; but only a very few, as 
Harvard and Leland Stanford, are permitting 
their students to elect their work throughout the 
whole course with direct reference to a broad and 
thorough preparation for entrance upon the pro- 
fessional course, under the guidance and counsel 
of advisory committees from the faculty. 

Character of Our Professional Schools. — On the 
other hand, many of our so-called professional 

21 



DEFECTIVE ORGANIZATION 

schools are not worthy of the name. Our State 
normal schools are practically of high school 
grade, or, at best, may grade with the first years 
of college. The same may be said of many law 
schools, and, to some extent, of the medical 
schools. The general standard, however, of 
many of the best law schools and medical schools 
is being gradually raised by increased require- 
ments for entrance, and by State requirements 
for admission to practice. Still, it must be ad- 
mitted that the low standard of requirements 
permitted by a large number of the States is re- 
sponsible for the numerous low-grade institu- 
tions of these two professions. 

But it is in the business world that our profes- 
sional training proves weakest. We have no 
commercial schools, in the professional sense, 
with the exception of the Wharton School of 
Finance and Economy, a part of the University 
of Pennsylvania ; the School of Commerce of the 
University of Wisconsin; and perhaps a few 
others in process of formation. President James, 
of Northwestern University, in his able report on 
commercial education in Europe, points out in 



22 



COLLEGES AND PROFESSIONAL SCHOOLS 

strong- contrast the inferior character of training 
given by our so-called business colleges : 

* " There is at present little opportunity for 
a youth desiring to enter business life to get 
any systematic assistance in preparing him- 
self for his future career, if he desires or ex- 
pects to engage in anything but clerical work. 

It may be said that the best 

preparation is a good general education of the 
literary high school and college. This has 
always been the answer to every proposition 
to organize professional or technical educa- 
tion. It is essentially the mediaeval idea of 
education, and it dies only very slowly and 
very hard in the face of modern progress. 
The best practical answer to it is the fact that 
practical men as a class will have nothing to 
do with it. Opportunities for such education 
have been open to the business classes for 
three centuries, and they have availed them- 
selves of them only to a very limited extent 
either in Europe or in America ; while, when- 

*Edmund J. James, report to the American Bankers' 
Association in 1893; U. S. Education Report, 1895-96, 
pp. 722-723. 

23 



DEFECTIVE ORGANIZATION 

ever a special education of high rank has been 
open to them they have shown their apprecia- 
tion of it by patronizing the institutions which 
offered it. 

" The fact seems to be that in every Hne of 
educational life the number of people who will 
take a very extensive course of study of a 
purely liberal character is very small indeed, 
while the number of those who will take an 
extensive special or professional education is 
large and continually growing. Indeed, if 
you were to cut out of our present so-called 
liberal courses those persons to whom the 
study of Latin, Greek, history, mathematics, 
science, etc., is not only a liberal but also a 
technical pursuit in the sense of preparing 
them directly for their future work — namely : 
teachers, preachers, lawyers, physicians — the 
number left in these courses would be aston- 
ishingly small. 

" We can conquer the uneducated and half 
educated people of this country for secondary 
and higher education only by offering them 
courses of study which, while they are of a 
strictly educational character in the best sense 

24 



ORGANIC EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 

of the word, shall also have some bearing on 
their future every-day life, shall have some 
direct relation to the work they are called 

upon to do in the world 

" A commercial training must be really ed- 
ucational in character. What this means, in 
the domain of secondary education, can be 
seen if one will take the six months' course of 
the average so-called commercial college in 
the United States, and compare it with the 
three years' course of the school in Vienna, or 
Prague, or Leipsic, or Antwerp, or of the two 
schools in Paris. It is work of this latter 
character which is at once practical and lib- 
eral ; which educates for life while it trains 
for a livelihood, and which should be intro- 
duced into our scheme of public education." 

Can an Organic Educational System be Con- 
structed? — Look where we may among all classes 
of educational institutions we cannot help having 
forced upon our notice the injurious effects of 
our arbitrary, haphazard process of preparation 
for life work. Doubtless, there are many things 
in the nature of social conditions existing in so 



25 



DEFECTIVE ORGANIZATION 

great and varied a country, that make the con- 
struction of a satisfactory educational system a 
matter of momentous difficulty. Among a peo- 
ple so widely scattered, of many different origins, 
of different social customs, and having widely 
different ideas of what constitute the demands of 
present civilization, there must, of necessity, be 
correspondingly wide differences of opinion re- 
garding the kind and the quantity of educational 
training requisite to a satisfactory preparation 
for life work. But the difficulty of the undertak- 
ing, however great, is no argument against the 
eventual establishment of an organic scheme of 
education, if by such a scheme we can secure 
better results, and in a shorter period. As re- 
spects this, the only questions are, ( i ) will the 
establishment of an organic scheme of education 
better matters, and (2) under such conditions as 
exist in this country is it possible to establish 
such a system? 

* " Germany may be said to have a system 
of education ; France likewise ; but in Amer- 

*Pres. William Harper, address before National Edu- 
cational Association, 1895 ; U. S. Education Report, 
1895-96, pp. 1335-1336. 

26 



ORGANIC EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 

ica, as a whole, there is no trace of anything' 
that might be rightly called a system. It is 
true that there is a so-called public school 
system; but this is at best partial, covering 
only a small portion of the field, and in effec- 
tive operation only in certain portions of the 
country. There is in certain States — for ex- 
ample, Michigan and Minnesota — something 
which looks like a system in the relationship 
that exists between grammar schools and high 
schools and between high schools and the State 
University; but this is only partial and of 
questionable efficiency, even in the States in 
which it has been most fully developed. . . 
" It is possible that the results of our work 
as at present conducted may justify the lack 
of a system ; and, indeed, the lack of system. 
There are those who praise unduly these re- 
sults. They are in most cases, however, per- 
sons unfamiliai with the results obtained from 
other countries , for it is beyond dispute that 
the average boy of i8 or 19 who has finished 
the grammar and high school courses has had 
no such advancement as the boy of corre- 
sponding age in Germany. It is beyond dis- 



27 



DEFECTIVE ORGANIZATION 

pute that whatever advantages the average 
American college possesses, whatever it may 
do for its students in discipline and in real 
effectiveness, it by no means ranks with the 
gymnasium or the lycee. The results do not 
justify either the amount of money expended 
or the amount of work given to the cause of 
education in America. The introduction of 
order and system would double the efficiency 
of the work done, save two to four years in 
the life of every student, and secure a thor- 
oughness which would revolutionize American 
methods in politics, business, and letters. . . 
" The question is, have we waited long 
enough, and has the time come when effort of 
a most vigorous character shall be put forth 
to do that which hitherto we have expected to 
be done of itself? The difficulties attending 
the adoption of any general plan which could 
be denominated a system have not been over- 
looked, (a) We are still a young and un- 
developed nation. Has the proper time ar- 
rived for a national system which shall not 
only include all that has thus far grown up, 
but at the same time organize the whole into 

28 



ORGANIC EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 

an organic and systematic unity? (b) We are 
not as yet a people. The term peoples is more 
appropriate. Many and discordant are the 
elements of which we are composed. Is it 
possible to develop a system which shall be 
pleasing to all? (c) Will not better results be 
achieved if we move along independent lines, 
each investigator watching the results of all 
and adopting from time to time that which 
commends itself to him? These and many 
other objections present themselves in oppo- 
sition to the advocacy of a system. But I 
would answer: (i) We have at our com- 
mand the wisdom and experience of all the 
ages, and if we are not in a position to-day to 
take the necessary steps to formulate a system, 
we never shall be. (2) The very fact that as 
a people we have among us representatives of 
so many nationalities ; the very fact that our 
great purpose in reference to all foreign na- 
tionalities is the purpose to Americanize 
them — in other words, the very circumstances 
of our situation — should incite us to provide 
a system of education which, like our Amer- 
ican system of government, shall be unique 

29 



DEFECTIVE ORGANIZATION 

and worthy the name American. (3) The 
adoption of a system does not shut out exper- 
iment and investigation, but rather encourages 
them. A system is not necessarily rigid and 
mechanical, but may be most flexible. Nor is 
it supposed that any system will continue to 
be used without modification. The very fact 
that it is a system carries with it the idea of 
growth, and growth means change." 

A Preliminary to The Establishment of Such 
System. — But before an ideal educational system 
can be evolved it is necessary that our educators 
generally shall get a more comprehensive under- 
standing of the fundamental principles underly- 
ing an organic scheme of educational institutions. 
The greatest obstacle with which the student has 
had to contend, in his effort to get an education, 
has been the general indifference of all classes of 
teachers, from the primary school to the univers- 
ity, to those phases of the educational process 
outside of their own particular field. Nowhere 
is it true with greater force than in educational 
work, that he who does not comprehend the gen- 
eral outlines of the whole process is not really 



30 



ESTABLISHMENT OF SYSTEM 

competent to work in any part of it. So, the aim 
in the succeeding chapters will be to discuss the 
work of each period of student life from the 
standpoint of the student's whole career. It is 
not the purpose, in this connection, to propose 
any scheme of educational institutions, but rather 
to inquire into the fundamental features of the 
student period in order to determine, if possible, 
whether an organic scheme of study, extending 
throughout the whole student career, from the 
kindergarten through the professional school, 
may be rationally constructed. This does not 
mean that all students should be required to take 
the same studies throughout the student period. 
On the contrary, the inquiry will be, can not the 
educational process be so manipulated that each 
individual student shall be scientifically developed 
into the fullness of his inborn individuality? In 
other words, is there a science of study? 



31 



CHAPTER III. 

THE ORGANIC BASIS OF STUDY 

General Inquiry. — ^^Can the outline features of 
a complete scheme of study, ranging through the 
whole period of student life, be rationally deter- 
mined, and if so, upon what basis? 

Is There a Science of Education? — At the 
very outset we are confronted by the question : 
Is there a science of education? If the educa- 
tional process is a scientific process, there is in- 
ferentially a science of study; but if the educa- 
tional process be merely arbitrary, then there can 
be no science of study. Hence the nature of 
the true educational process by which the lives 
of our boys and girls are developed into full- 
ness must be determined before an intelligent 
opinion can be formed respecting the outline 
features of an organic system of study. 

First Step in Investigation.— The first step in such 
investigation is to get a clear conception of what 

32 



CONCEPTION OF EDUCATION 

education means in general, and of what it means 
for individuals in particular. Before educational 
work can be successfully planned and directed 
it is essential to understand clearly these first 
principles. It will not suffice to have a general 
notion that education means improvement, or 
that it is but a preparation for greater enjoyment 
of life, or a means of achieving greater life- 
results. The teacher ought, at the beginning 
of educational work, to comprehend the whole 
aim of education, which comprehension can, it 
is true, only be elementary; but nevertheless it 
can be complete in scope. If the teacher expects 
to make real, to the fullest extent, the possibil- 
ities latent in the educational process, he must 
reach, out and grasp the universal fellowship of 
man; he must perceive the object of human ex- 
istence and how the students as individuals are 
best fitted to take a helpful part, each in his own 
peculiar way; for school work cannot afford to 
be at cross-purposes with the established order 
of things. 

Position in Life Determined by Conception of Educa- 
tion. — National as well as individual position in 
life is determined largely by the prevailing con- 



33 



ORGANIC BASIS OF STUDY 

caption of education. It is not possible to reach 
completeness of development without embodying 
the whole aim of education. If the recognized 
educational agencies seize upon one phase of 
life and develop that phase unduly, it is idle to 
expect other than an abnormal and one-sided 
growth. Just what education means is not easy 
to state in a single sentence. Master minds of all 
ages have attempted to define its meaning, but 
their definitions present an extremely varied ar- 
ray; sometimes because they have expressed the 
same conception in different terms, and some- 
times because the conceptions have been widely 
different. But among them all there seems to 
be a common bond that education is for com- 
pleteness of life, as understood in their own age 
and in their own quarter of the world. The sum- 
mary of Dr. A. R. Taylor is well put, when he 
says: 

" Various attempts have been made to state 
the object of education. Plato would have it 
to be the perfection of all the powers of man. 
Dante declared it to be to fit man for eternity. 
Milton thought it to be to regain what man 



34 



EDUCATIONAL AIMS 

lost in Adam's fall. Spencer says that it is 
to prepare man for complete living. Rosen- 
kranz makes the object to be to develop the 
theoretical and practical reason in man, to 
give him freedom. Few, however, seem to 
emphasize fully the idea that its end is to ad- 
vance the youth in his efforts to become like 
the Infinite. In His image is he created, and 
every activity exerted should be a striving to 
realize the possibilities thus assured." 

Some Educational Aims. — The vast differ- 
ences in educational practices have come from 
the equally varying conceptions of what con- 
stitutes complete living. It is instructive in this 
respect to notice some actual results of the work- 
ings of several educational aims that have been 
most prominent at different times in the course 
of human progress. 

Chinese.— The educational system of the Chinese 
is the great thorn in the side of those who are 
trying to infuse a higher life into that people. 
Intent upon perpetuating the traditions of their 
past, the minds of their students are filled with 
musty accounts of ancestral doings, learned by 

35 



ORGANIC BASIS OF STUDY 

rote and without attempt at understanding. New 
ideas are disapproved. Progressive plans are 
crushed. Everything bows to the past. Those 
nobler powers of the human mind — the lofty- 
imagination with its almost illimitable range of 
soaring; the creative genius with its cosmopoli- 
tan adaptability and its marvelously fertile fields 
for action; the warm-blooded, heart-thrilling, 
spontaneous impulse of universal brotherhood, 
reaching out through time and space to other 
lands and other ways, giving and gaining inspi- 
ration and substantial help on every hand — 
there they lie, like seraphic prisoners, chained to 
a barren spot of earth, with the irons of tradi- 
tion on their limbs and the dust of ages in their 
eyes. What shall we call this — crystallization, 
petrification, mummification? Something is 
manifestly lacking in such a system of education. 
Spartan.— The ancient Spartans dwelt almost ex- 
clusively upon the culture of the physical body. 
War was their profession, and their chief educa- 
tional aim was to produce a race of victorious 
warriors. They were remarkably successful for 
a time, but they have passed away and their in- 
fluence is not appreciably felt in modern life. 

36 



EDUCATIONAL AIMS 

Their aim was selfish and temporary, and their 
results perished simply through lack of vital, ex- 
isting qualities. Education means more than 
the Spartan discerned. 

Ascetic. — The opposite extreme was reached by 
the monks of the early middle ages. Over- 
whelmed by the sinfulness of the world, they 
became convinced that the only way for them 
to attain an ideal life lay in complete isola- 
tion from their fellow-men, and in the degrada- 
tion of the physical body. Such a monstrous 
doctrine, so widely at variance with the estab- 
lished order of human society, was destined to 
be short-lived. Originating in a reaction from 
the widespread sensual indulgence then prevail- 
ing, it served its purpose and expired. 

Scholastic. — In the later middle ages the oppos- 
ing schools were Scholasticism and Mysticism. 
The Schoolmen, accepted without question all 
the prevailing dogmas, and proceeded to discuss 
them with an intellectual subtlety. 
" That would sever and divide 
A hair 'twixt north and north-west side." 
"How many angels could stand at once on the 
point of a needle?" "Do angels, in moving from 

Z7 



ORGANIC BASIS OF STUDY 

place to place, pass through the intervening 
space?" "If a donkey were placed exactly half- 
way between two stacks of hay, would he ever 
move ?" — are samples of the questions upon 
which they practiced their intellectual gymnas- 
tics. The last question presumably involves a 
delicate adjustment either of gravitation or of 
gastric attraction, though one is inclined to doubt 
the probability of the average modern donkey's 
discussing the matter at any great length. 

Mystic— If the Schoolmen displayed little origi- 
nality, the Mystics used even less. All questions 
of doubt they referred to " the natural Christian 
soul within," which meant, practically, not their 
own better judgment, but the dictum of the 
ecclesiastical authorities. It is patent to the ob- 
server of human nature that such repression of 
originality could not long exist side by side with 
such intellectual activity. 

Radical Scientific— Its reaction has come in the 
modern scientific school, whose extreme is repre- 
sented by Rousseau and Haeckel and Ingersoll. 
The Schoolmen never dreamed of probing be- 
neath the surface of established beliefs. The 
radical scientist would not, for a moment, accept 

38 



EDUCATIONAL AIMS 

a dogma that he can not trace to its very origin 
by his unaided reason. This extreme scientific 
view has been greatly modified in recent years as 
it has become manifest that many of the great 
truths of Hfe can not be fathomed by human logic 
alone. But it should be remembered that this in- 
tensely analytical and critical spirit is an abnor- 
mal, not a natural condition of the human mind. 
We can not live by intellect alone, and any school 
of thought which fosters such a system is radi- 
cally wrong. 

Classical.— Not until recently has the classical 
monopoly been broken. Rising in the fourteenth 
century with the discovery of ancient Greek and 
Latin manuscripts, it gained strength rapidly 
and for the last four hundred years has dictated 
the educational creeds of civilized nations. That 
much good may be obtained from the study of 
Greek and Latin literatures and institutions is not 
to be disputed. But, like many other good 
things, it has been carried to excess. Within 
their proper limits, Greek and Latin are of great 
value, both as disciplinary and as culture studies. 
They need, however, to be balanced by studies 
in modern civilization, that the student may be- 

39 



ORGANIC BASIS OF STUDY 

come familiar also with the spirit and structure 
of the social life around him. It is not a ques- 
tion of whether such extended study of the clas- 
sics is valuable, or whether it is more valuable 
than some other study ; but whether it is the most 
valuable material that can be given the student 
in this formative period. Looking- at the matter 
in this light, we can not but think it wise that 
educational sentiment is limiting the classics to 
their proper place, and is supplying more than 
formerly such material as is directly applicable 
to the conditions of that social life by which the 
student finds himself surrounded and upon the 
understanding of which depends his success when 
he leaves his studies and enters upon his life work. 
This does not imply a lowering of the educa- 
tional standard. On the contrary, it seeks to 
elevate the standard and to broaden it, to make 
it more substantial and more real. 

"Liberal."— Another doctrine, or more properly 
speaking, a phase naturally growing out of the 
Scholastic and Classical doctrines, has been for 
centuries, and still is, one of the most subtle and 
dangerous opponents with which educational 
progress has to deal. It may not be altogether 

40 



EDUCATIONAL AIMS 

fair to represent this class of educators by the 
professor who, in discussing the modern demand 
for an education of tangible, substantial value, 
thanked God that, at least, the science which he 
taught could not be prostituted to any useful 
purpose. Doubtless, his is an extreme case; but 
even the most casual observer of educational cur- 
ricula can not have failed to notice that our 
schools, from the primary to the university — 
and the higher the grade the more noticeable the 
peculiarity — have been, and in many cases still 
are, permeated by this abstract, anti-utilitarian 
doctrine of contemplative happiness and isolated 
perfection under the guise of a " liberal educa- 
tion," in contrast to the method of making every 
branch in the curriculum a clearly-defined, or- 
ganic part of a training which proceeds at every 
stage to develop the student to his fullest capacity 
with direct reference to his utilitarian value as an 
active factor toward the betterment of his fellow- 
men, in whatever sphere of action his natural 
gifts may eventually call him. It would, per- 
haps, be unfair to say that this class of educators 
have felt no interest in ordinary human affairs. 
Let us rather take the more charitable view that, 



41 



ORGANIC BASIS OF STUDY 

in their zeal to prevent our educational institu- 
tions from becoming mere training places in the 
art of money-getting, they have sv^ung to the 
opposite extreme of aesthetic idealism, and have 
lost sight of the golden mean of education which 
combines completeness of development with util- 
ity of service. 

"Practical." — Probably the most powerful bias 
with which educators have to contend lies in the 
so-called " practical education." It is not strange 
that the remote practical value of much that has 
composed our courses of study in the past, and 
to some extent in the higher departments yet, 
should have caused a reaction against such train- 
ing. The unpractical air of so many learned per- 
sons has created a far-reaching impression that 
a systematic course of preparation is not at all 
necessary for successful life work. Those who 
believe in this creed hold that we should get into 
our life work as soon as we can squeeze through 
the passageway, and then prepare ourselves more 
fully in what time we can spare from our daily 
duties. The fallacy and disadvantages of such 
a method of education are evident to everybody. 
Every town of consequence is crowded with ill- 

42 



EDUCATIONAL AIMS 

trained lawyers and physicians, whose profes- 
sional worth is approximately represented by that 
algebraic sign, familiar to students, which means 
less than nothing; and whose professional serv- 
ices in an important case would probably verify 
the approximation. Every community can pro- 
duce its teachers and farmers and business men 
who are going to the wall through insufficient 
knowledge of their work, while others are suc- 
cessful all around them. Everywhere and in 
every profession men and women are making ig- 
nominious failures simply because they do not 
know how to do what they are trying to do. The 
" practical" educator will, perchance, reply that 
Patrick Henry and Benjamin Franklin and An- 
drew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln were self- 
educated men. And so they were ; but let us dis- 
tinguish here between this so-called " practical " 
education and true self-education, such as these 
great men wrought out. Practical education, as 
commonly understood, is narrow; it is all in all 
in itself ; it does not see the wide interrelationship 
of things, the conception of which makes the 
broad-minded citizen and man of affairs. It is 
superficial ; it skims along the surface, not diving 

43 



ORGANIC BASIS OF STUDY 

down for those great underlying truths which 
must constitute the foundation for all the superior 
forms of mental activity. It is not thorough ; it 
has a constant atmosphere of hurry; it does not 
furnish a stable basis for that patient and accu- 
rate investigation so indispensable to high mental 
excellence. On the other hand, self-education, in 
its true sense, implies all that is implied in true 
school education; it may be broad and deep and 
thorough, rich in all the essentials of character 
culture. 

True Principles of Education. — This short 
resume of educational beliefs will, it is trusted, 
leave us better prepared to enter upon a consider- 
ation of the true principles of education. Hav- 
ing the experiences of others before us, we may 
profit by their experiments and be warned by 
their failures. Seeing wherein they have failed, 
we may seek more intelligently the meaning of 
life and its rational mode of development. 

Let us, then, inquire what is comprehended in 
true education. To do this, let us consider its 
chief aim, its foundations, its method, and its 
means. 



44 



TRUE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

Chief Aim. — The chief aim of education is whole- 
ness of character. Benevolent in spirit and com- 
prehensive in scope as the range of human pow- 
ers, it recognizes that through the whole course 
of humanity runs a steady, unchangeable, divine 
purpose; and that the life of every individual is, 
or ought to be, the embodiment of a purpose in 
harmony with the social purpose. It recognizes 
that this social purpose and these individual pur- 
poses are so vitally interwoven that they must 
ultimately be both realized or both annihilated. 
It holds that the ultimate aim of human society 
is happiness — not alone individual happiness, 
nor class happiness, nor national happiness; but 
benevolent, universal happiness. And it strives 
to accomplish this purpose by developing the in- 
dividual, physically, mentally, and morally, into 
a full, rich personality in that sphere where he 
is peculiarly adapted to work in harmony with 
the divine order of things. 

* " By the word ' education ' I mean much 

more than the ability to read, write, and keep 

common accounts. I comprehend under this 

noble word, such a training of the body as 

* Horace Mann, Lectures on Education, p. 117. 

45 



ORGANIC BASIS OF STUDY 

shall build it up with robustness and vigor, at 
once protecting- it from disease and enabling it 
to act formatively upon the crude substances 
of nature — to turn a wilderness into culti- 
vated fields, forests into ships, or quarries and 
clay-pits into villages and cities, I mean also 
to include such a cultivation of the intellect 
as shall enable it to discover those permanent 
and mighty laws which pervade all parts of 
the created universe, whether material or 
spiritual. This is necessary, because if we act 
in obedience to those laws, all the resistless 
forces of nature become our auxiliaries and 
cheer us on to certain prosperity and triumph ; 
but if we act in contravention or defiance of 
these laws then Nature resists, thwarts, baf- 
fles us, and in the end, it is just as certain 
that she will overwhelm us with ruin, as it is 
that God is stronger than man. And, finally, 
by the term 'education' I mean such a culture 
of our moral affections and religious suscep- 
tibilities as, in the course of Nature and Prov- 
idence, shall lead to a subjection or conformity 
of all our appetites, propensities, and senti- 
ments to the will of Heaven." 

.46 



TRUE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

Rational education, therefore, is not for mere 
meditative happiness, nor for isolated perfection, 
which latter is not possible. Human experience 
has amply demonstrated that the doctrine of the 
Great Teacher, when he taught that he who 
spends his whole life-thought on his own 
life shall lose it, but that he who spends 
his life in the elevation of his fellow-men 
shall find abundance of life, is a fundamental ed- 
ucational certainty. Not that all students, or 
even the majority, should be educated for minis- 
ters and mission workers. By no means. For 
some undetermined reason, the impression exists 
that only those *professions which disseminate 
theological doctrines are Christian in character. 
It is a profound mistake. There is no vital moral 
difference between the theological professions and 
any other honorable profession. They are all 
fertile fields in the earthly estate of the Infinite 
Husbandman. If there are immoral or non- 
moral manifestations in any of these honorable 
professions, such results are due to moral de- 
fects in the workers and not to the intrinsic na- 
ture of the work. 

* By the term " profession." as used throughout this 
book, is meant all kinds of life work, no matter how des- 
ignated in common usage. 

47 



ORGANIC BASIS OF STUDY 

* " Nobleness of life depends, not upon our 
calling, but upon spirit and purpose. It is as 
honorable to teach school as to preach the gos- 
pel; to plow corn as to practice law. The in- 
spiration of the high purpose, the beauty of a 
sincere life, are within the reach of all." 

The true purpose of education is to develop 
our youth so fully that all worthy callings shall 
be Christianized, and all unworthy callings die 
out for lack of support. Along no other line can 
human progress be directed. In no other way 
is fullness of life possible. For a true human 
life implies a life purpose; a life purpose implies 
a life work; a life work implies professionalism; 
only Christianized professionalism can bring sub- 
stantial progress; and substantial progress is a 
pre-eminently necessary factor among those that 
make for a complete life. 

So, education is for wholeness of character. 
Neither the intellectual nor the- aesthetic aim, both 
of which have been prominent in the past, can 
fulfill the requirements. They are essential in 
so far as they extend, but they are only parts of 
* J. N. Patrick, Pedagogics, p. 208. 

48 



TRUE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

the whole. Nor is there sufficiency in that higher 
aim which just now is being made the center of 
educational investigation — moral culture. 

* " Shall we make moral character the clear 
and conscious aim of school education, and 
then subordinate school studies and discipline, 
mental training and conduct, to this aim? It 
will be a great stimulus to thousands of teach- 
ers to discover that this is the real purpose 
of school work, and that there are abundant 
means not yet used of realizing it. Having 
once firmly grasped this idea, they will find 
that there is no other having half its potency. 
It will put a substantial foundation under ed- 
ucational labors, both theoretical and practi- 
cal, which will make them the noblest of en- 
terprises." 

Most educators will, doubtless, agree that 
moral culture in its broad sense should comprise 
a large part of the whole character-building proc- 
ess, for there can be no question that when the 
whole aim of education is analyzed, the most im- 
portant aim is found to be that of moral culture. 

* McMurry, General Method, p. lo. 

49 



ORGANIC BASIS OF STUDY 

Much of the discussion on this subject has arisen 
over the relative emphasis to be put on discipU- 
nary and on information studies, and also over 
the adoption of school methods to this end. 

Wholeness of character implies morality, but 
morality does not necessarily imply wholeness of 
character. A person may be what is commonly 
called a " moral character " and yet be a com- 
paratively passive, stagnant factor in human af- 
fairs, while completeness of character necessarily 
means a masterly positiveness and progressive- 
ness. 

Foundations. — Let US classify the foundations of 
education under three heads, intellectual, moral, 
and physical, considering as foundations only the 
great natural phases of the student's activity out 
of which he grows from within himself, and not 
those other factors which may be more properly 
classified as aims or means. Our present pur- 
pose does not demand any extended discussion 
of these foundations, further than to notice that 
there should be a balanced development of them 
and that each should be developed to the highest 
degree consistent with the conditions governing 
the development of the other two. That is, the 

50 



TRUE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

time and the educational material shall be so dis- 
tributed that these three chief phases of character 
shall receive continuous and harmonious devel- 
opment throughout the whole course of educa- 
tion. Fullness of development signifies, ( i ) in- 
tellectually — to quote President Oilman : 

" (a) Concentration, or ability to hold the 
mind exclusively and persistently to one sub- 
ject; (b) distribution, or power to arrange 
and classify the known facts; (c) retention, 
or power to hold facts; (d) expression, or 
power to tell what we know; (e) power of 
judgment, or making sharp discriminations 
between that which is true and that which is 
false, that which is good and that which is 
evil, that which is accidental and that which 
is essential." 

(2) Morally, (a) a clear conception of the 
moral constitution of society, and of every human 
life as the embodiment of a beneficent life pur- 
pose; (b) the development of the loftiest ideals 
of justice, honor, truth, beauty, duty, obedience, 
patriotism and love; (c) a strong will, able to 
lead one to do what he knows he ought to do 

51 



ORGANIC BASIS OF STUDY 

and to keep from doing- what he knows he ought 
not to do; (3) physically, (a) a sound, well-de- 
veloped body, capable of furnishing the physical 
force necessary to high mental activity and suc- 
cessful practical work; (b) skilled physical train- 
ing adapted to the peculiar needs of one's profes- 
sion, trade or calling. 

Method.— The method of education is deduced 
from the foundations and the aim of education. 
It seeks to understand the nature of the individ- 
ual, to understand the nature of society at large, 
and to adjust the individual to his environments 
in the way most effective for both. It takes the 
child as an individual practically isolated from 
the rest of the world, yet with a capacity for en- 
joyment and a latent power for working for the 
welfare of humanity in his own peculiar way; 
and it labors to bring out this capacity and this 
latent power in all their fullness. The early 
training of the child will necessarily be general 
and with reference to those qualities which he 
possesses in common with other social beings. 
Experience has shown, as a rule, that the special 
powers of the child do not manifest themselves be- 
fore he has reached some degree of maturity. Just 

52 



TRUE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

where general training should leave off and pro- 
fessional preparation begin is a question upon 
which there has been the widest variance and 
from which have come the most unsatisfactory 
results. The determining principles will be out- 
lined in a following chapter. Suffice it here to 
say that it is the method of education to take the 
child or the undeveloped adult — isolated intel- 
lectually and morally from his fellow-beings — 
and to develop him into a well-balanced social 
member, a successful worker, and an intelligent 
and law-supporting citizen ; in other words, to 
develop individuality into personality in its com- 
plete and true meaning. 

Means.— The means by which education endeav- 
ors to" attain its object are (i) study, in its 
broad meaning, including not only what is gained 
from books, but from Nature also; (2) contact 
with other personalities; (3) and practical work. 
These have reference to conscious efforts put 
forth to influence the growth of the student. 
There are a multitude of other influences bear- 
ing upon him, which can be treated only inci- 
dentally, though they are too important to be alto- 
gether ignored. In short, education is the 

53 



ORGANIC BASIS OF STUDY 

product of all the developing influences with 
which we come in contact, whether physical, in- 
tellectual, or moral ; at home, in school, in church, 
in social life; or whatever or wherever they may 
be; but the great determinative factors are the 
first three mentioned above. 

Summary.— Such is, in substance, the philosophy 
of education. Natural in principles, scientific in 
method, and comprehensive in means, it turns 
its face upon the highest features of human life 
and places emphasis upon the most beneficent prin- 
ciples of human action. We multiply words 
without knowledge, to speak of religious educa- 
tion; for all true education is intrinsically relig- 
ious. And to say that a man may be fully edu- 
cated and yet be a fit candidate for the peniten- 
tiary, is a contradiction in terms. It can not be. 
It is not a lesser paradox to say that a student has 
completed his education, but has no life work in 
view. The very fact of education presupposes 
a life work. Nor is it consistent to call that a 
complete education which prepares one, however 
effectually, for a profession that is, on the whole, 
detrimental to the best interests of his fellow-men. 
Such a preparation is antagonistic to the central 

54 



EDUCATIONAL WORK DISCONNECTED 

purpose of education. It is absolutely and sci- 
entifically impossible that he who aims at purely 
selfish advancement can ever reach the highest 
forms of personality or attain to the highest 
degree of success. The forces of education can 
not act naturally and freely upon such an indi- 
vidual. 

Our Educational Work Disconnected. — 
This being the basis upon which our educational 
institutions ought to be founded and in accord- 
ance with which our educational curricula ought 
to be mapped out, it remains for us to inquire 
whether present day education has been built ra- 
tionally upon these fundamental principles; and 
if it has not, how far it has departed from the 
true lines. It might well have been taken for 
granted that, with our wonderful progress along 
almost every great line of human activity, our 
educators had become familiar with all the great 
principles of education, were it not that observa- 
tion and experience most decidedly negative the 
inference. If the great outlines of the stages of 
life-development were generally comprehended, 
we might reasonably expect to find the courses of 
study in our educational institutions symmetri- 

55 



ORGANIC BASIS OF STUDY 

cally adjusted and working together in harmo- 
nious relationship. On the contrary, what do we 
find? Here, a controversy between the high 
schools and the colleges concerning what specific 
preparation in languages, mathematics, or the 
sciences, the colleges will accept for entrance re- 
quirements — as though the reputation of these 
institutions were the only thing to be taken into 
consideration — there, a conference of teachers, 
now primary, now secondary, now collegiate, 
discussing the enlargement of the curriculum and 
the possibility of squeezing more work into the 
already over-crowded period — tacitly proclaim- 
ing knowledge to be the chief aim of educational 
effort ! Again, the conflict rages around the at- 
tempted ejection of certain traditional studies 
from the curriculum, and the forces struggle furi- 
ously, for tradition wields a mightier scepter than 
a czar, and its dynasties, in spite of the opposi- 
tion of philosphy and experience, often maintain 
themselves for centuries. And, now and then, a 
group of pedagogic leaders meet and draw up a 
code of study, in which each specialist usually 
succeeds in having assigned about one-third or 
one-fourth more work than the student can pos- 

56 



ORGANIC BASIS OF STUDY 

sibly accomplish in the allotted time — for most 
specialists can not comprehend why their own 
specialty is not as easy for everyone else as it is 
for themselves, nor do a considerable number of 
them seem to realize that education, especially 
primary and secondary education, is more than 
an acquaintanceship with the rudiments of those 
specialties which are most common. 

Organic Basis of Study. — With so much of 
this so-called education all around us the 
thoughtful observer can not help crying 
out : " What part is the student to play in 
this life-building drama? For whose benefit 
is the drama being enacted? Let the leading 
character play his part." It would be most gra- 
ciously "charitable to assert that the leading char- 
acter has always been the hero of the play. Be 
that as it may. The fact remains that past ed- 
ucational methods have not been altogether in 
harmony with the natural development of the 
student. Methods suited chiefly to the demands 
of our educational agencies, in reputation, tradi- 
tion, convenience, or abstract philosophy, have 
been introduced and rigorously wrought out, 
while the principles underlying the determination 

57 



ORGANIC BASIS OF STUDY 

and growth of student character into fullness of 
personality for life work have been far too often 
treated as a secondary consideration. The prob- 
lem of student life will never be solved until the 
needs of the student are made paramount to 
everything else, and attention is concentrated on 
the laws of his development. The student him- 
self, considered with reference to his individual- 
ity, his environments, the lazvs of his develop- 
ment, and the forces of education best suited to 
these conditions, constitutes the organic basis of 
educational institutions, the sine qua non of the 
educational process. 

Fundamental Principles of Organic System. — 
The construction of an organic scheme of 
study will at once become a problem capable of 
scientific solution when we shall recognize in our 
educational practice the following fundamental 
propositions : ( i ) That there is a divine pur- 
pose permeating and guiding human soci- 
ety; (2) that each human life is, or 
ought to be, the embodiment of a divine 
purpose in harmony with the divine social pur- 
pose; (3) that education means the full develop- 
ment of the individual for a life work in harmo- 

58 



PRINCIPLES OF ORGANIC SYSTEM 

nious correspondence with the social purpose; 
(4) that each character can be fully developed 
only along its natural lines and at its own rate 
of growth; (5) that the material comprising the 
directive influence of education, and particularly 
the study material of school life, be adjusted in 
proportion to the relative value of each subject to 
the welfare of society at large and to the indi- 
vidual student in particular. There is nothing 
abstruse or arbitrary or illogical in these propo- 
sitions. They necessarily involve each other and 
throw light on each other. They are organic, 
and the problem of dealing with them is a prob- 
lem for scientific solution. 



59 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE ORGANIC STRUCTURE OF STUDY 

Three Great Lines of Inquiry. — Having deter- 
mined in a general way the outline features of 
the basis upon which a complete system of study 
extending through the whole period of student 
life must be established, and the fundamental 
propositions involved, we have now to inquire 
more at length by what principles the study mate- 
rial of education can be rationally constructed 
upon this basis, and by what principles our educa- 
tional institutions can map out courses of study 
with a scientific certainty that they are meeting 
the needs of their students in full correspondence 
with the organic phases of life development, as 
particularly manifested during the student period. 
To this end, let us consider the chief aim, the 
great stages, and the great departments of study. 

Chief Aim of Study.— Basic Principle.— There is 
a wide difference in practice, as well as in beliefs, 

60 



CHIEF AIM OF STUDY 

as to the chief aim of study. That there is con- 
fusion among the educational conceptions of 
study is apparent, for conflict of practices is in- 
dicative of conflict of beliefs in educational lines 
just as in other lines. Here, as in most other 
cases, where conflicts arise, each party has seized 
upon a part and mistaken it for the whole. To 
be certain that we know the central purpose of 
study we must be certain that we know what is 
the central purpose of life and how study can 
most effectively succeed in achieving that great 
life purpose. The philosophy of study is a chap- 
ter in the philosophy of life. To understand 
clearly the chapter it is necessary to comprehend 
the whole work. The basic principle of the sci- 
ence of -study is found in this philosophic concep- 
tion, the lack of which has led to the conflicting 
notions and practices of study. A few instances 
will illustrate. 

Knowledge.— It is by no means an uncommon 
belief that the chief aim of study is the acquisi- 
tion of knowledge. By this is meant not merely 
the so-called " practical " knowledge, but also 
whatever knowledge will conduce to fullness of 
equipment for active life work. No one will deny 

6i 



ORGANIC STRUCTURE OF STUDY 

that such an equipment is one of the great pur- 
poses of study; but is it the dominant central 
purpose? We have only to inquire what is es- 
sential to develop completeness of life. Can 
this be accomplished by making all things else 
subordinate to the development of intellect ? The 
fallacy of such an attempt has already been shown 
in a previous chapter in the case of the extreme 
evolutionists, and if further proof is desired, we 
need only to look around us anywhere to discover 
that accumulation of knowledge does not neces- 
sarily involve accumulation of character. True 
study does, however, involve a rational and steady 
growth of all those life forces that contribute to 
virtue of conduct and effectiveness of action. 
There is a greater aim in study than the mere ac- 
cumulation of information, however valuable that 
may be. 

Intellectual Discipline. — Certain educators hold 
that the highest value of study is in the intellec- 
tual discipline that it affords. It is not disputed 
that the discipline gained from the study of math- 
ematics is highly valuable in all matters involv- 
ing a necessary conclusion from given premises. 
It is also conceded that the discipline gained from 

62 



CHIEF AIM OF STUDY 

the study of the physical sciences is of considera- 
ble worth in determining- questions of simple caus- 
ation. Nor will it be denied that the biological 
sciences and historical studies are of inestimable 
importance in disciplining for all those great prob- 
lems of practical life in which a mtiltiplicity of 
factors are intricately complicated. Right think- 
ing depends upon right habits of thought, and 
right habits of thought, partly inherited, depend 
in part upon the discipline gained by study. Yet 
such discipline is not the determinative aim of 
study, for while it will undoubtedly secure a high 
degree of intellectual power, it does not guaran- 
tee at all the culture of the emotional and moral 
elements of personality. There is more than in- 
tellectual discipline in study. The term " dis- 
cipline" is used by some in the broader sense of 
character-culture, and in this latter sense is in ac- 
cord with the best educational thought. 

.Esthetic Culture. — Others look upon study as a 
means by which they may attain a high degree 
of aesthetic culture, popularly known under that 
indefinite and much-abused term " a liberal edu- 
cation." To cultivate the aesthetic nature is wise, 
and is essential to a rounded development of in- 

63 



ORGANIC STRUCTURE OF STUDY 

dividuality ; but to make the aesthetic aim the su- 
preme aim is to make the end of study simply 
selfish enjoyment — even though it be one of the 
higher forms of selfishness. The chief aim of 
study can never be a selfish aim. 

Social Standing.— Still others study for social 
standing, just to become cultured members in the 
circles of an exclusive aristocracy. To call this 
a theory of study would hardly be proper. It is 
simply a tacit practice, but, nevertheless, a prac- 
tice of considerable extent. Yet there is no im- 
minent danger of having the true aim of study 
overthrown by any class bias, be it ever so strong. 
The spirit of equality too thoroughly permeates 
our atmosphere ever to permit an aristocracy of 
education, or even to give respectability to the 
notion that study is the means of creating a sepa- 
rate and aristocratic class. Social standing is 
entirely proper in its place, when it is the mark of 
a person's real influence for the upbuilding of so- 
ciety; and when sought for this purpose it is an 
entirely worthy aim. An immense amount of 
good may be achieved through the social position 
in which a good education, coupled with a fair 



64 



CHIEF AIM OF STUDY 

natural ability, will place one. But this can only 
be a subordinate aim. 

Fullness of Personality.— In what, then, consists 
the chief aim of study? Not in knowledge, not 
in intellectual discipline, not in aesthetic culture, 
not in social standing — not in any of these alone ; 
but in such a richness of being and in such a high 
organization of self-activities as will eventually 
bring the student into fullness of life in the pe- 
culiar sphere of his own personality. Those who 
place scholarship as the chief aim of study might 
readily observe that scholarship alone may be- 
come simply a sharpened tool in the service of 
an evil purpose, which is antagonistic to the cen- 
tral purpose of education. Many of the convicts 
in our state prisons today, and many others, who 
ought to be there, are men of no inconsiderable 
learning ; and every attempt to help them by culti- 
vating their intellectual parts without attempting 
to change the motive power that guides the intel- 
lect is simply adding so many units of energy to 
their power of destructiveness. The same is true 
of intellectual discipline. While those who see in 
aesthetic culture or in social standing the culmina- 
tion of study, overlook the great fact that educa- 

65 



ORGANIC STRUCTURE OF STUDY 

tion fundamentally involves full preparation for 
a life work that shall be in harmony with the best 
interests of one's fellow-men, and not for a work 
or a condition that is intrinsically and necessarily 
selfish. That is not a complete system of study 
which does not reach all the powers of the student 
and develop them into an organic whole with re- 
spect to social welfare and in accordance with the 
natural bent of the inherent self-activities. How 
far the prevailing methods of study are from com- 
ing up to this completeness of conception may be 
easily tested by inquiring at random what pupil in 
this school or in that school is the best student, 
and almost invariably will be pointed out the best 
scholar. In fact, common acceptation holds the 
terms " student " and " scholar " synonymous. 
This is erroneous and shows a vagueness of con- 
ception in regard to the true scope of study. The 
successful student is a successful scholar ; but he is 
more than a successful scholar, just as the human 
mind is more than intellect. He ranks high not 
only in loftiness and keenness of intellect, but also 
in richness of emotion and in virtue of will — in 
truth, he is coming into maturity of manhood. 
The chief aim of study is an organic product — a 

66 



SCHEME OF STUDY 

personality thoroughly equipped for its own pe- 
culiar life work. 

True Scheme of Study is Organic. — A true 
scheme of study aiming at an organic product 
is in itself organic. It is psychological in basis ; 
it is founded on the principles of the human mind. 
It is philosophical in structure; its component 
parts are mutually interrelated and follow each 
other in logical sequence. It is, as far as practi- 
cable, individual in application and aims at the 
development of complete personality. It is soci- 
ological in scope, and seeks to relate the student 
to the highest interests of his social environments. 
There is no limit to its depth and breadth and 
richness except the limits of the student's capac- 
ity and opportunities. Yet, with all the breadth, 
with all the depth, and with all the richness which 
a course of study may contain, there is, from be- 
ginning to end, no room for irrelevant material of 
any sort whatever. Comprehensive in reach, mul- 
tiform in material, and extended in time, there is 
still permeating it all, a common affinity relating 
and organizing the mass into a body of material 
possessed of organic vitality and character color. 



67 



ORGANIC STRUCTURE OF STUDY 

Correlation of Studies. — The phases of correlation 
of studies have never been better stated than in 
the report of the Committee of Fifteen on Corre- 
lation of Studies : 

* " First, the arrangement of topics in 
proper sequence in the course of study, in such 
a manner that each branch develops in an 
order suited to the natural and easy progress 
of the child, and so that each step is taken at 
the proper time to help his advance to the 
next step in the same branch, or to the next 
steps in other related branches of the course 
of study. 

" Second, the adjustment of the branches 
of study in such a manner that the whole 
course at any given time represents all the 
great divisions of human learning, as far as 
is possible at the stage of maturity at which the 
pupil has arrived, and that each allied group 
of studies is represented by some one of its 
branches best adapted for the epoch in ques- 
tion ; it being implied that there is an equiva- 

* Report of Committee of Fifteen on Correlation of 
Studies, p. I. 

68 



SCHEME OF STUDY 

lence of studies to a greater or less degree 
within each group, and that each branch of 
human learning should be represented by some 
equivalent study ; so that, while no great divi- 
sion is left unrepresented, no group shall have 
superfluous representatives and thereby debar 
other groups from proper representation. 

" Third, the selection and arrangement of 
the branches and topics within each branch 
considered psychologically with a view to af- 
ford the best exercise of the faculties of the 
mind, and to secure the unfolding of those 
faculties in the natural order, so that no one 
faculty is so overcultivated or so neglected as 
to produce abnormal or one-sided mental de- 
velopment. 

" Fourth and chiefly, your Committee un- 
derstands by correlation of studies the selec- 
tion and arrangement in orderly sequence of 
such objects of study as shall give the child 
an insight into the world that he lives in, and 
a command over its resources such as is ob- 
tained by a helpful cooperation with one's fel- 
lows. In a word, the chief consideration to 
which all others are to be subordinated, in the 

69 



ORGANIC STRUCTURE OF STUDY 

opinion of your Committee, i3 this require- 
ment of the civiHzation into which tiie child 
is born, as determining not only what he shall 
study in school, but what habits and customs 
he shall be taught in the family before the 
school age arrives ; as well as that he shall ac- 
quire a skilled acquaintance with some one 
of a definite series of trades, professions, or 
vocations in the years that follow school ; and, 
furthermore, that this question of the relation 
of the pupil to his civilization determines what 
political duties he shall assume and what re- 
ligious faith or spiritual aspirations shall be 
adopted for the conduct of life." 

Summary of Correlation Values.— So, a true course 
of study is organic ( i ) with reference to the inter- 
relations of its branches; (2) with reference to 
the relation of its material to the student as a 
being whose development is regulated by certain 
well-defined laws; and (3) with reference to the 
relation of the student to society at large. 

Correlation Increases with The Higher Life. — That 
many studies are mutually related, is generally 
recognized. It is impossible to get the most out 

70 



SCHEME OF STUDY 

of any one study without combining with it sev- 
eral others. This is notably the case with his- 
tory, geography, and literature; but it is, by no 
means, confined to these. Fullness and richness 
in all departments of study depend upon the abil- 
ity and opportunity of the student to gather 
from their varied sources all things that bear 
materially upon the subject in hand, and to re- 
late them to it in such a way that he may per- 
ceive the subject in its totality. The primitive 
Papuan savage who builds his house in the tree- 
tops perceives that there is such an institution 
as a home, but he knows it chiefly as a place of 
refuge. He does not think of it with the varied 
emotions that we experience when we look upon 
it as the dearest spot on earth, the seat of our 
earliest associations, the training-place of our 
youthful years, the center from which radiate 
those holy influences of affection and inspiration 
which strengthen and uplift as no other human 
forces can. And when we look abroad and see 
all over the land sons and daughters going out 
into the world from under the parental roof, one 
here, one there, one to yonder city, one to a 
far-away state, carrying with them the selfsame 

71 



ORGANIC STRUCTURE: OF STUDY 

stories learned at mother's knee and the selfsame 
code of ethics instilled through years of anxious, 
loving care, we behold in its full light the home 
as the great unifier of our diversified social life, 
the corner-stone of our magnificent political 
structure. The untutored Papuan cannot com- 
prehend this wonderful grandeur and richness of 
the American home in its wholeness as it sends 
its countless streams of vivifying influence into 
every field of human action and binds together 
with cords of steel the workers in every walk of 
life. The very barrenness of his environments 
renders impossible such a conception. There is 
nothing in his experience from which his imag- 
ination could form such a picture. 

And so it is with the student. When he be- 
gins his studies he is like the primitive Papuan 
in the crudeness and simplicity of his concep- 
tions. But as he advances in his work and his 
increasing experience reaches out into an ever- 
broadening range of life, detecting more and 
more the complex network of underlying ties 
between seemingly unrelated things, and learning 
to sift a multiplicity of factors to find the domi- 
nating cause whenever an effect is observed, he is 

72 



SCHEME OF STUDY 

beginning to grasp the universal correlation of 
things and is, indeed, coining into completeness 
of mental vision. This attitude of mind is, to 
some extent, a natural gift ; but it may be greatly 
developed by education, and in so far as this may 
be done by study it is accomplished by broad- 
minded teachers and by scholarly text-books, for 
the chief intellectual worth of both teachers and 
books consists in the vividness with which they 
illumine the subject in all its important bearings, 
so that at the close it stands out clear and dis- 
tinct in its organic relations. 

Complete Scheme of Study. — Preliminary Gen- 
eral View. — The phase of study, however, which 
is of chief concern in this connection, is the gen- 
eral outline of the whole scheme of study from 
the beginning of school life until the entrance of 
the student into professional life. 

* " The distinctions that have been made be- 
tween the various types of education — repre- 
sented by the term elementary, grammar, high 

* J. J. Findlay in Report of Royal Commission on 
Secondary Schools, quoted in report of U. S. Commis- 
sioner of Education, 1894-95. 

7Z 



ORGANIC STRUCTURE OF STUDY 

school and the Hke — are distinctions which 
only have a right foundation so far as they 
discriminate the various stages in the one edu- 
cational process from childhood to manhood ; 
so far as they have separated teachers into 
classes they are the result of earlier imper- 
fect conceptions of education which have an 
historical basis, but no basis in sound thinking. 
There is little in the nature of things to justify 
the barriers erected by school laws and by 
custom between one section of teachers and 
another. I call particular attention to this 
doctrine because it has been reinforced by the 
movements which are now taking place in 
American education." 

Before the educator can map out intelligently 
a course of study he must have a clear conception 
of the general outline of the entire vi^ork that 
lies before the student up to his entrance into pro- 
fessional life. Before he can with wisdom take 
a further step toward building up the student's 
life character he must know how much of his 
education the student has now completed and in 
what stage of his growth the student now is. 

74. 



SCHEME OF STUDY 

These two propositions may seem quite simple, 
but they involve a great deal. They take hold 
upon the very foundations of life development. 
The general outline of the structure of study will 
be sketched briefly here, taking it up more at 
length in succeeding chapters. 

Great Divisions of Study.— Study in its re- 
lation to the student as a being whose develop- 
ment is regulated by certain well-defined laws 
resolves itself into six great departments, four 
of which — general foundation study, leading 
study, professional preparatory study, and pro- 
fessional study — follow logically in the order 
named and may be termed the great stages of 
study ; while the other two departments — semi- 
professional study and general culture study — 
are complementary and run parallel to the last 
two departments mentioned above. The accom- 
panying diagram will show the general struc- 
ture: 

COMPLETE SCHEME OF STUDY. 
MAIN work: complementary work: 

1. General Foundation Study (a) 

2. Leading Study (b) 



75 



ORGANIC STRUCTURE OF STUDY 



3. Professional Preparatory $ Semi-profes.ional Study (e) 

S^"^y ^^^ ( General Culture Study (f). 

( Semi-professional Study (e) 

4. Professional Study (d) . . j and 

( General Culture Study (f). 



Departments and Stages Distinguished. — So, while 
there are six great departments in the structure of 
study, which are lettered (a), (b), (c), (d), (e), 
(f), there are only four great stages in the proc- 
ess, those numbered i, 2, 3, 4. This distinc- 
tion between departments and stages must not be 
overlooked. A vast deal of the looseness and 
waste which characterize much of our efforts 
toward education both at home and in school is 
due to a vagueness on this very point. When a 
contractor undertakes the erection of one of our 
large business buildings he does not make his 
estimates in a general way with a misty panorama 
of a massive stone structure looming up before 
him. Not at all. He goes about it very defi- 
nitely. He separates the proposed structure into 
its parts. He figures on the cost of the founda- 
tion, of the framework, of the filling in of the 
framework, of the ornamental and other parts 
essential to the complete structure — not neces- 

76 



SCHEME OF STUDY 

sarily in this exact order, but with this exactness 
of detail. It is not possible to furnish a com- 
plete parallel between building a house and build- 
ing- a character, but the comparison is, at least, 
significant. 

General Foundation Study and General Culture 
Study Distinguished. — It is essential that those 
who are to direct the education of our youth 
shall ascertain with somewhat of precision what 
should constitute the general foundation study. 
In doing this they must distinguish clearly be- 
tween general foundation study and general cul- 
ture study. Common usage is quite at sea here. 
Indeed, if a pertinent criticism upon the work of 
a great -majority of our institutions of learning 
may be permitted, it is that they are trying to do 
the work of both these departments together. 
This cannot be done with the highest degree of 
success. It is an abnormal arrangement. The 
vital distinction between these departments is that 
general foundation study works upon the student 
zuhile his peculiar pozvers are yet undeveloped 
and his needs are largely in common with his 
fellozv students; and it seeks to cultivate those 

77 



ORGANIC STRUCTURE OF STUDY 

powers that he possesses in common zvith all 
others, and to furnish him zvith such informa- 
tion as is of universal value. On the other 
hand, general culture study in its true meaning 
presupposes an already developed purpose that 
is dominating the student's life and tending to 
narrow it, which narrowness it is the function 
of such study to regulate and to fill out to the 
full measure of his mental stature. This will 
suggest the natural order of these departments. 

General Foundation Stage. — General foundation 
study, beginning with the first efforts of child- 
hood, should continue until the natural bent of 
the student for a particular kind of knowledge 
begins to manifest itself. 

Leading Stage. — At this point it is the function 
of the course of leading study to take up the 
work, furnishing all the essential elements of gen- 
eral foundation study, but with emphasis upon 
the student's favored branches, its object being 
to draw out the peculiar powers of the student 
by feeding him that educational food upon which 
he is best fitted to grow, and in such increasing 
proportion of favored work as his evolving char- 
acter will call for from time to time. 

78 



SCHEME OF STUDY 

Five Grand Divisions of Knowledge. — The ele- 
ments of universal knowledge, which general 
foundation study should contain in the propor- 
tion of their relative general values, and leading 
study in a proportion varying according to the 
individual needs of the student, may be classed 
under five great heads — (i) Mathematics; (2) 
Science; (3) History, including the various 
phases of social life and the personal element in 
literature; (4) Language and Philosophy, includ- 
ing the technical part of literature and Mental 
and Moral Philosophy; (5) Esthetics, including 
Music, Art, and the aesthetic part of literature. 
These constitute the five grand divisions of study, 
and an acquaintance with the general principles 
of each division is necessary to a balanced devel- 
opment of character. 

Basis of Above Classification. — The philosophical 
reason for the above classification may be stated 
very briefly. The supreme aim of intellectual 
development is to make the human mind as 
nearly as possible like the Infinite mind — in 
other words, to comprehend the universe in its 
fundamental phases. We may classify the uni- 
verse into the world of nature and the world of 



79 



ORGANIC STRUCTURE OF STUDY 

man; and upon these worlds the human mind 
looks through five avenues. Or, it would be 
more strictly accurate to say that there are five 
great phases of universal existence, and that a 
complete scheme of study must provide for a rea- 
sonable acquaintance v^ith each phase. These 
phases are, in the world of nature, ( i ) time and 
space, imaginary existences in nature — dealt 
with in arithmetic, algebra, and geometry; (2) 
the real, concrete existences in nature — dealt 
with in physiology, zoology, botany, physical ge- 
ography, physics, and chemistry : in the world of 
man; (3) the will, the motive power of charac- 
ter as a factor in human progress — dealt with 
in history, science of government, and that part 
of literature which involves a personal element; 
(4) the intellect in its technical workings and 
structure, the internal view of the character ma- 
chine — dealt with in the study of the languages, 
grammar, rhetoric, logic, and mental and moral 
philosophy; (5) the resthetic side, the tonality, 
coloring, and symmetry of character — dealt with 
in music, art, and the aesthetic part of litera- 
ture. 



80 



SCHEME OF STUDY 

Arrangement of Courses of Study. — It is not ex- 
pected that every study just named shall be in- 
cluded in the courses of general foundation study 
and leading- study. Just how much of this can 
wisely be taken must be determined by the logic 
of local possibilities and by the degree of ma- 
turity of the student's mind at this period of life. 
However, each great group should be represented 
liberally by those of its studies which are within 
the mental grasp of the student. The representa- 
tive studies which are beyond his reach in these 
early stages may be taken later if desired. There 
should be liberal provision for such an arrange- 
ment. 

Passage from Leading Stage to Professional Pre- 
paratory-Stage, — When shall leading study leave 
off and professional preparatory study begin? 
Usually, as soon as it is evident to the teacher 
that the student sees with clearness the profes- 
sion of his choice. The length of the leading 
study period varies somewhat with different stu- 
dents, but the large majority probably require 
about two years' work of a maturity equivalent to 
the work done in the last two years of the better 
grade of high schools. This appears to be the 



ORGANIC STRUCTURE OF STUDY 

experience of many of our best educators. Still, 
the limits are flexible and must eventually be de- 
termined partly by the student himself through 
introspection into his own development and partly 
by the judgrnent of the teacher. This must be 
taken with the qualification given later, that two 
years' work or the equivalent should be the mini- 
mum requirement. 

Principles Determining Quantity of Work for Pro- 
fessional Preparatory and Professional Stages. — .With 
professional preparatory study and also with 
professional study the standard as to length 
of time required is also flexible ; but its flexibility 
depends upon the nature of the profession as well 
as upon the nature of the student. Some pro- 
fessions require more extensive and deeper foun- 
dations than do others. For the sake of illus- 
trating this difference we may classify the most 
common professions into ( i ) the intellectual — 
including teaching, law, the ministry, journalism, 
and statecraft; (2) the industrial — including 
agriculture and business; (3) the scientific — in- 
cluding medicine, engineering, and architecture; 
(4) the aesthetic — including music and art. 
The principles of study for each of these profes- 

82 



SUMMARY OF PRINCIPLES 

sions, as well as the character and quantity of 
material, will be noticed later on. Suffice it here 
to point out that the " intellectual " professions 
are generally conceded to require a period of 
preparation extending through a longer time 
than do the others, with the exception of the medi- 
cal profession. The terms employed here do not, 
of course, imply that the last three groups are 
not of an intellectual nature, but that in the first 
group we deal more exclusively with intellectual 
productions than with any other kind. So the 
name of each of the other groups suggests its 
dominant phase. 

Summary of Principles Governing Each 
Stage. — General Foundation Study.— Summing up, 
general . foundation study should furnish a 
thorough grounding in all the essential elements 
of universal knowledge, in a proportion adjusted 
to their relative character-building values. Ex- 
perience has shown that the quantity of material 
necessary for this should be equivalent to the 
work of the grammar school and the first two 
years of the better grade of high schools. Where 
the student has kept pace with the work as laid 
down in graded schools this stage may be finished 

83 



ORGANIC STRUCTURE OF STUDY 

by the age of sixteen; and if the high school 
course should begin with the seventh grade, as it 
ought, then this stage of general foundation study 
might be finished at the age of fourteen. If 
there are in the student any strong germs of in- 
dividuality, they will, as a rule, begin to make 
some manifestations of their existence by this 
time. 

Leading Study. — These manifestations will ap- 
pear at first only in a general way, and need a 
judicious course of leading study to lead them 
out into definiteness. For instance, the future 
clergyman will probably evince a liking for the 
historical or language groups before he can rea- 
sonably be expected to know what he wants to 
do for a life work. Yet, as these groups are the 
great foundation stones of the ministry, as well 
as of the other " intellectual " professions, they 
furnish the very best material for nourishing and 
drawing out his intuitive want into a substantial 
reality with clearly defined limits. The intuitive 
preference, in this case, for history or language is 
good evidence that the student's future profes- 
sion is one of those that are built up mainly from 
historical or language foundations. What pro- 

84 



SUMMARY OF PRINCIPLES 

fession is the destined one, it is the purpose of the 
course of leading study to determine. As soon 
as this is ascertained its purpose is accomplished. 
The length of time required for this will vary 
somewhat with different students, since some 
natures develop more rapidly and others more 
slowly than the average; but, as stated before, 
the average student will, under present condi- 
tions, probably require an amount of leading 
study equivalent to the work of the last two 
years of our better class of high schools — best 
secured at present, it is believed, for the ma- 
jority of students in the schools, between the 
ages of sixteen and eighteen; eventually, under 
closely organized courses of study, between four- 
teen and sixteen. 

Professional Preparatory Study. — When the course 
of leading study has revealed the particular 
profession for which the student possesses a 
latent capacity, it is the function of the profcs 
sional preparatory course to furnish an organic 
basis upon which a thorough professional course 
can later be laid — a basis broad and solid in 
those studies which are correlated with and nat- 
urally precedent to the studies of the strictly pro- 

85 



ORGANIC STRUCTURE OF STUDY 

fessional course. In the case of the law student, 
the course preparatory to the professional course 
should include English Literature and oratorical 
work, Latin, French, Logic, Ethics, the Social, 
Sanitary, and Economic Sciences, Political and 
Constitutional History, and Political Science. 

Application of Principles Determining Length of 
Professional Preparatory and Professional Study, 
(i) "Intellectual" Professions.— The time required 
for professional preparatory study and for profes- 
sional study has been found somewhat variable 
with the different professions. In the " intellec- 
tual " professions of teaching, law, the ministry, 
and journalism, the trend of our most progress- 
ive educators is toward the belief that the most 
satisfactory results are to be reached by a three 
years' course of professional preparatory train- 
ing, followed by three years of professional train- 
ing. This will permit the student who has kept 
pace with school grades to take up his life work 
at the age of twenty-four, which is as early as 
is possible under existing educational and social 
conditions. As previously pointed out this may 
be shortened two years still, by a closer organiza- 
tion of elementary and secondary schools, making 

86 



SUMMARY OF PRINCIPLES 

it possible for the student to enter upon his life 
work at the age of twenty-two, better trained 
and better prepared for life, in every respect, 
than at present. 

(2) Scientific Professions.— In, the professions of a 
scientific nature, especially engineering and archi- 
tecture, and in agriculture, where the sweep of 
intellectuality is not so comprehensive, but where 
a high degree of technical skill is required, it 
seems to be the most practicable plan to com- 
bine both courses in a professional course of four 
years in which course the first two years are, to 
all practical intents, special preparatory work. 
Medicine, from a scientific standpoint, might be 
classed with these last ; but the science of medi- 
cine is so intricate and comprehensive, and is 
charged with so direct and momentous a respon- 
sibility for our very existence, that it demands 
extensive training. For these reasons it ought 
to be placed in the group with law and the minis- 
try, with respect to quantity of training required. 

(3) Business.— It is to be regretted that our 
higher institutions, with one or two exceptions, 
give us no models for the complete education of 
business men. True, there are a multitude of 

87 



ORGANIC STRUCTURE OF STUDY 

Business Colleges — so called — but they are only 
working away at the impossible problem of 
breathing fullness of life into the dry bones of six 
months' technicalities. The qualified man of busi- 
ness ought to be versed in Finance, in the science 
of Money, in Physics, in Chemistry, in the great 
Industrial problems, in the intricacies of Commer- 
cial Geography, in Municipal Government, and in 
all our international relations which so vitally 
affect him. 

(4) Music and Art.— As for the aesthetic profes- 
sions of music and art, the special powers begin to 
manifest themselves at so early an age that there 
is usually no call for leading study in their cases. 
Their professional preparatory course thus runs 
parallel with the latter part of their general foun- 
dation study. Because of this narrowing in- 
fluence upon general foundation work, most musi- 
cal institutions have seen fit to insist that the 
foundation course for their students be extended 
two years beyond the normal period and be made 
to include the period that shall ordinarily be oc- 
cupied in leading study by the students for other 
professions. This is undoubtedly a wise re- 
quirement, and is applicable as well to artist stu- 

88 



SUMMARY OF PRINCIPLES 

dents, A four years' professional course is usu- 
ally found necessary in the best conservatories 
of music, and as soon as we shall have institu- 
tions of equal merit in art culture, an equivalent 
course of training will doubtless be found advis- 
able in art. 

Semi-Professional Study.— It is sufficient here 
merely to point out the position of semi-profes- 
sional study in the general outline, since it will 
be noticed more at length in the chapters on pro- 
fessional preparatory and professional study. 
This is a department of study often ignored, and 
almiost never pursued in a systematic way, much 
less with a full conception of its organic relation 
to the complete education of the student. 

(i) Basis. — And it owes its position, not to the 
arbitrary creation of certain theoretical reasoners 
or of any system of abstract philosophy, but it is 
based on the actual constitution of that social life 
amid which the student must eventually work out 
his life purposes. Even a very little of sociologi- 
cal knowledge will make clear the significance of 
this particular department as relating both to the 
student's ultimate professional success from a 
personal standpoint, and to his oblig'ations for 

89 



ORGANIC STRUCTURE OF STUDY 

the betterment of his fellow-men along the lines 
in which he is best fitted by nature to act. But 
more on this later. 

General Culture Study. — With regard to general 
culture study, the character of the material de- 
pends upon the nature of the individual student; 
and the quantity of material, upon the narrowness 
or breadth of his main course of study, begin- 
ning when leading study leaves off, and comple- 
menting the specialistic and narrowing tendencies 
of professional preparatory and professional 
study. Just because general culture study is 
complementary work, we are not justified in the 
conclusion, sometimes drawn, that it has not a 
distinct and important function to perform in 
education. 

(i) Fundamental Purpose.— Its fundamental pur- 
pose is to furnish material in those grand divisions 
of study which may not be represented in the 
professional preparatory and professional courses, 
and thus to keep the student in completeness of 
mental vision. In this completeness of mental 
vision, this comprehensiveness of interest, lies one 
great source of the richness and power of charac- 
ter. A vital defect in our present system of 

90 



SUMMARY OF PRINCIPLES 

higher education is that it fails, in most cases, 
to make provision in its courses for this com- 
plementary culture, so absolutely essential to full- 
ness of character. How seldom do we find a 
great specialist who is correspondingly great in 
personal influence and inspiration ! Such per- 
sonal defect is partly natural ; but it is, in a con- 
siderable degree, the logical result of incomplete 
education. Character, not intellect, is the all- 
dominating aim of study. General culture study 
must be mapped out with the same philosophic 
conception that is brought to bear on the other 
great departments of study, so that the entire sys- 
tem of study from beginning to end shall be or- 
ganic — connected philosophically, and not in 
that *' catch-as-catch-can " relation existing under 
the scheme of classification now in vogue. 



91 



CHAPTER V. 

THE GENERAL FOUNDATION STAGE 

Conflicting Conceptions of Complete Scheme 
of Study. — After what has been said of the gen- 
eral structure of the whole course of study and 
of the functions of each department, it would be 
unnecessary to touch upon this more at length 
were it not for the multiplicity of conflicting con- 
ceptions that exist as to what constitutes a com- 
plete scheme of study. These conceptions range 
through all shades of variety from the so-called 
practical educator who, in his short-sightedness, 
overlooking both the possibiHties of the student 
and the true relation of study tO' a realization of 
these possibilities, finds a sufficient preparation 
for life work in the three R's, to the radical col- 
legian who in his intemperate zeal for a high stan- 
dard of development, by insisting upon a full four 
years' college course as simply general founda- 
tion study, ignores or does not perceive the lim- 
itations of the student, psychologicafly and so- 

92 



CONCEPTIONS OF SCHEME OF STUDY 

ciologically. The intensely " practical " youth 
wants to learn how to read and write and cipher ; 
and as soon as he can do this, he leaves school 
and goes to work. A large proportion of stu- 
dents are anxious to complete the common school 
course, but beyond it they see no value in school- 
ing. In those localities where the advantages of 
high schools are obtainable, they are looked upon 
by the majority as the culmination of educative 
efforts — witness the popularity and significance 
of the high school " Commencement." A certain 
class, especially the moderately ambitious self- 
supporting students, take an abbreviated course 
at one of the numerous private Normal Schools 
and enter into their work fully prepared — in 
their own estimation. Others go from the com- 
mon school or from the high school directly into 
the professional school. Still others spend full 
time in college, but make the last two years pre- 
paratory to the professional course. In a few 
colleges the student is allowed to select his whole 
course with reference to fullness and richness of 
subsequent professional study. While those stu- 
dents who follow implicitly the dicta of the con- 
servative classical educators, take their whole 



93 



GENERAL FOUNDATION STAGE 

training to the end of the college course, as simply 
general foundation work. 

Due to Defective Understanding of Principles of 
Study.— In the midst of this chaos of conceptions 
many have been led to ask whether there is really 
a Science of Study ; whether there are any funda- 
mental and unchangeable principles in accordance 
with which a complete scheme of study may be 
mapped out with a scientific assurance that it is 
fully adapted to our needs. This has already 
been answered in the affirmative; and if these 
conceptions are sifted, it is found that their vari- 
ance is due largely to a lack of understanding of 
the principles underlying the organic structure 
of study as pointed out in the preceding chapter. 
Since there can be no question that it is possible 
to construct a rational scheme of school work 
based upon the great stages of life unfoldment 
during the student period and having direct ref- 
erence to the great departments of social activity 
which the student will be expected to deal with 
successfully if he is ever to enter into complete 
realization of himself, let us proceed more par- 
ticularly to the stages and departments of such 
a scheme. To this end it is not necessary to en- 

94 



FUNCTION 

ter into a lengthy discussion of all the features 
of curricula making. Nothing more will be at- 
tempted than to present the outline principles, 
leaving each educational worker to fill in the de- 
tails from his own experience and observation. 

Function. — The function of general founda- 
tion study, as previously defined, is to deal with 
the student while his peculiar powers are yet un- 
developed and his needs are largely in common 
with his fellow-students; to cultivate those 
powers which he possesses in common with his 
fellow-students and to furnish him with such in- 
formation as is of general value. In short, this 
stage ought to furnish a general foundation for 
the full development of whatever activities are 
inherent in the student. 

Two Classes of Students. — In this connection 
comes, what some consider, one of the most diffi- 
cult problems in the whole range of educational 
practice. This stage must deal with two classes 
of students whose respective interests are appar- 
ently antagonistic. The one class is composed 
of those who intend to complete the entire course 
of study ; the other class, of those who will drop 
their studies absolutely by the close of this stage 

95 



GENERAL FOUNDATION STAGE 

and enter into life work as day laborers or as 
members of the various trades. Various prop- 
ositions have been offered to do away with this 
supposed antagonism. Separate schools have 
been suggested. Less radical reformers have 
proposed separate courses. 

* " Your committee has not been able to 
agree on the question whether pupils who 
leave school early should have a course of 
study different from the course of those who 
are to continue on into secondary and higher 
work. It is contended, on the one hand, that 
those who leave early should have a more 
practical course, and that they should dispense 
with those studies that seem to be in the na- 
ture of preparatory work for secondary and 
higher education. Such studies as Algebra 
and Latin, for example, should not be taken up 
unless the pupil expects to pursue the same 
for a sufficient time to complete the secondary 
course. It is replied, on the other hand, that 
it is best to have one course for all, because 
any school education is at best an initiation 
for the pupil into the art of learning, and that 

* Report of Committee of Fifteen, p. 60. 

96 



FUNCTION 

wherever he leaves off in his school course 
he should continue, by the aid of the public 
library and home study, in the work of mas- 
tering science and literature. It is further con- 
tended that a brief course in higher studies, 
like Latin and Algebra, instead of being use- 
less, is if more value than any elementary 
studies that might replace them." 

The leading representative of the Herbartians 
has stated the position of that great school of 
thinkers, on this question, succinctly and with 
characteristic clearness. 

* '• The common school, more than all other 
institutions, should lay broad foundations and 
awaken many-sided sympathies. The trade 
school and the university can afford to spe- 
cialize to prepare for a vocation. The com- 
mon school, on the contrary, is preparing all 
children for general citizenship. The narrow- 
ing idea of a trade or calling should be kept 
away from the public school, and as far as 
possible, varied interests in knowledge should 
be awakened in everv^chil d.'' 
* McMurry, General Method, p. 80. 

97 



GENERAL FOUNDATION STAGE 

After all, is there really a conflict of interests 
between the two classes of students? Both have 
wills, intellects, emotions. Both have character 
capacity. Both are susceptible to discipline and 
information, varying in degree, of course, but 
along the same general lines of physiological and 
psychological development. Both are subjects of 
the same country, under the same laws, and exer- 
cising the same rights of citizenship. Both are 
members of society, under the same social and 
business and moral customs. Indeed, their gen- 
eral interests, personally and socially, are identi- 
cal. Beyond these general interests general 
foundation study does not attempt to go. And 
beyond them it ought not to go. 

Studies.— Then, what studies will best give 
this general training, and, in what proportion 
ought they to be distributed to secure the best 
character results at the close of this stage? 

Distribution of Five Grand Divisions. — Accepting 
the classification of the elements of universal 
knowledge into five grand divisions, History, 
Science, Mathematics, Language, and Esthetics, 
each of these divisions will be represented in the 
general foundation curriculum. No experienced 

98 



RELATIVE VALUES OF STUDIES 

horticulturist expects his plants to grow into com- 
pleteness unless they are furnished with all the 
elements of plant life. Neither can we expect 
the student to develop normally unless he is fur- 
nished with all the elements of character culture. 
Granting, then, that we draw upon these five 
grand divisions, in what proportion shall they be 
distributed? It was once held that all subjects 
are equally of educative value. But experience 
has amply proved that there are decided differ- 
ences of result, in discipline, in serviceable knowl- 
edge, and in moral culture. It is asked on what 
basis educational values should be graded. On 
intellectual discipline? No. On knowledge? 
No. On moral culture? No. Not on any of 
these -bases alone ; but on the basis of complete- 
ness of life-giving forces. Studies ought to be 
given preference in the order in which they fur- 
nish, or most nearly approach, completeness of 
correspondence to all the character powers of the 
student. 

Relative Values of Studies. — Educators are 
far from being unanimous in respect to the rela- 
tive values of the several branches of study. In 
fact, there is probably no great school problem 

99 

ILofC. 



GENERAL FOUNDATION STAGE 

about which more radical difference of opinion is 
held. These conflicting schools may be sepa- 
rated, in a general way, into two great classes 
of thinkers, those who lay chief stress upon discip- 
linary values, and those who look chiefly to con- 
tent values. Perhaps, we cannot do better than 
to summarize their respective positions, as stated 
by eminent thinkers of each class. 

Disciplinary Viezv. — The grounds held by 
those who emphasize the disciplinary values of 
studies are set forth with such admirable and un- 
rivalled clearness in the report of the Committee 
of Fifteen on the Correlation of Studies that it 
has seemed best to give its exposition in consider- 
able fullness on the following pages : 

Language. — * " There is first to be noted the 
prominent place of language study that takes 
the form of reading, penmanship, and grammar 
in the first eight years' work of the school. It 
is claimed for the partiality shown to these 
studies that it is justified by the fact that 
language is the instrument that makes possible 
human social organization. It enables each 
person to communicate his individual experi- 
* Report of Committee of Fifteen, pp. 8, 9, 11. 
100 



RELATIVE VALUES OF STUDIES 

ence to his fellows and thus permits each to 
profit by the experience of all. The written 
and printed forms of speech preserve human 
knowledge and make progress in civilization 
possible. The conclusion is reached that learn- 
ing to read and write should be the leading 
study of the pupil in his first four years of 
school. 

" Reading and writing are not so much 
ends in themselves as means for the acquire- 
ment of all other human learning. This con- 
sideration alone would be sufficient to justify 
their actual place in the work of the elementary 
school. But these branches require of the 
learner a difficult process of analysis. The 
pupil must identify the separate words in the 
sentence he uses, and in the next place must 
recognize the separate sounds in each word. 
It requires a considerable effort for the child 
or the savage to analyze his sentence into its 
constituent words, and a still greater efifort to 
discriminate its elementary sounds. Reading, 
writing, and spelling, in their most elementary 
form, therefore, constitute a severe training 
in mental analysis for the child of six to ten 



lOI 



GENERAL FOUNDATION STAGE 

years of age. We are told that it is far more 
disciplinary to the mind than any species of 
observation of diflferences among- material 
things, because of the fact that the word has 
a two-fold character — addressed to the ex- 
ternal sense as spoken sound to the ear, or as 
written and printed words to the eye — but 
containing a meaning or sense addressed to 
the understanding and only to be seized by 
introspection. The pupil must call up the 
corresponding idea by thought, memory, 
and imagination, or else the word will cease 
to be a word and remain only a sound or 

character 

" Your committee would sum up these con- 
siderations by saying that language rightfully 
forms the center of instruction in the elemen- 
tary school, but that progress in methods of 
teaching is to be made, as hitherto, chiefly by 
laying more stress on the internal side of the 
word, its meaning; using better graded steps 
to build up the chain of experience or the train 
of thought that the word expresses." 



1 02 



RELATIVE VALUES OF STUDIES 

The committee would assign second place to 
mathematics : 

Mathematics. — * " Side by side with lan- 
guage study is the study of mathematics 
in the schools, claiming the second place in 
importance of all studies. It has been 
pointed out that mathematics concerns the 
laws of time and space — their struct- 
ural form, so to speak — and hence that 
it formulates the logical conditions of all mat- 
ter both in rest and in motion. Be this as it 
may, the high plane of mathematics as the 
science of all quantity is universally acknowl- 
edged There are branches 

that .develop or derive quantitative functions; 
say geometry for spatial forms and mechanics 
for movement and rest and the forces produc- 
ing them. Other branches transform these 
quantitative functions into such forms as 
may be calculated in actual numbers ; 
namely, algebra in its common or lower 
form, and in its higher form as the 
differential and integral calculus, and the 
calculus of variations. Arithmetic evalu- 
* Report of Committee of Fifteen, pp. 19, 20. 

103 



GENERAL FOUNDATION STAGE 

ates or finds the numerical value for the func- 
tions thus deduced and transformed. The 
educational value of arithmetic is thus indi- 
cated, both as concerns its psychological side 
and its objective practical uses in correlating 
man with the world of nature. In this latter 
respect, as furnishing the key to the outer 
world in so far as the objects of the latter 
are a matter of direct enumeration — capable 
of being counted — it is the first great step in 
the conquest of nature. 

" It is the first tool of thought that man 
invents in the work of emancipating himself 
from the thralldom of external forces. For 
by the command of number he learns to divide 
and conquer. He can proportion one force 
to another, and concentrate against an obstacle 
precisely what is needed to overcome it. Num- 
ber also makes possible all the other sciences 
of nature which depend on exact measurement 
and exact record of phenomena as to the fol- 
lowing items : Order of succession, date, dura- 
tion, locality, environment, extent of sphere 
of influence, number of manifestations, num- 
ber of cases of intermittence. All these can be 



104 



RELATIVE VALUES OF STUDIES 

defined accurately only by means of number. 
The educational value of a branch of study 
that furnishes the indispensable first step 
toward all science of nature is obvious." 
Geography. — The third place in the curriculum 
is assigned to geography, with the qualification 
made later under the topic of History : 

* " Following arithmetic as the second study 
in importance among the branches that corre- 
late man to nature is geography 

The educational value of geography as it is 
and has been in elementary schools is obviously 
very great. It makes possible something like 
accuracy in the picturing of distant places and 
events, and removes a large tract of mere 
superstition from the mind. In these days of 
newspaper reading one's stock of geographical 
information is in constant requisition. A war 
on the opposite side of the globe is followed 
with more interest in this year than a war 
near our own borderland before the era of the 
telegraph. The general knowledge of the lo- 
cation and boundaries of nations, of their 
status in civilization and their natural advan- 

* Report of Committee of Fifteen, pp. 27, 29, 30. 



GENERAL FOUNDATION STAGE 

tages for contributing to the world market, 
is of great use to the citizen in forming correct 
ideas from his daily reading. 

" The educational value of geography is 
even more apparent if we admit the claims of 
those who argue that the present epoch is the 
beginning of an era in which public opinion 
is organized into a ruling force by the agency 
of periodicals and books. Certainly neither 
the newspaper nor the book can influence an 
illiterate people ; they can do little to form 
opinion where the readers have no knowledge 
of geography. 

" As to the psychological value of geog- 
raphy little need be said. It exercises in 
manifold ways the memory of forms and the 
imagination ; it brings into exercise the 
thinking power in tracing back toward unity 
the various series of causes. What edu- 
cative value there is in geology, meteorology, 
zoology, ethnology, economics, history, and 
politics is to be found in the more profound 
study of geography, and, to a proportionate 
extent, in its merest elements." 



1 06 



RELATIVE VALUES OF STUDIES 

History.— It will be interesting to compare the 
value of history as stated here with the value as 
claimed by Herbartians. (Page 112 seq.) 

* " The next study, ranked in order of 
value, for the elementary school is history. 
But, as will be seen, the value of history, both 
practically and psychologically, is less in the 
beginning and greater at the end than geog- 
raphy. For it relates to the institutions of 
men, and especially to the political state and 
its evolution. While biography narrates the 
career of the individual, civil history records 
the careers of nations. The nation has been 
compared to the individual by persons inter- 
ested in the individual value of history. 
Man has two selves, they say, the individual 
self and the collective self of the organized 
state or union. The study of history is, then, 
the study of this larger, corporate, social, and 
civil self. The importance of this idea is thus 
brought out more clearly in its educational 
significance. For to learn this civil self is to 
learn the substantial condition which makes 
possible the existence of civilized man in all 
* Report of Committee of Fifteen, pp. 32, 33- 
107 



GENERAL FOUNDATION STAGE 

his other social combinations — the family, 
the Church, and the manifold associated ac- 
tivities of civil society 

" History, in school, it is contended, should 
be the special branch for education in the 
duties of citizenship. There is ground for this 
claim. History gives a sense of belonging to 
a higher social unity which possesses the right 
of absolute control over person and property 
in the interest of the safety of the w^hole. 
This, of course, is the basis of citizenship; 
the individual must feel this or see this 
solidarity of the state and recognize its su- 
preme authority. But history shows the col- 
lisions of nations, and the victory of one 
political idea accompanied by the defeat of 
another. History reveals an evolution of 
-orms of government that are better and bet- 
ter adapted to permit individual freedom, and 
the participation of all citizens in the adminis- 
tration of the government itself." 

The Committee then takes up w^hat may be 
termed, from its standpoint, the studies of sec- 
ondary importance : 

1 08 



RELATIVE VALUES OF STUDIES 

Studies of Secondary Importance. — * " It is 
clear that there are other branches of instruc- 
tion that may lay claim to a place in the course 
of study of the elementary school ; for exam- 
ple, the various branches of natural science, 
vocal music, manual training, physical culture, 

drawing, etc 

" In the first place, there is industrial and 
aesthetic drawing, which should have a place 
in all elementary school work. By it is se- 
cured the training of the hand and eye. 
Then, too, drawing helps in all the other 
branches that require illustration. Moreover, 
if used in the study of the great works of art 
in the way hereinbefore mentioned, it helps 
to cutivate the taste and prepare the future 
workman for a more useful and lucrative 
career, inasmuch as superior taste commands 
higher wages in the finishing of all goods." 
Compare the value of natural science as stated 
by the Committee of Fifteen with the value as 
claimed by Herbartians. (Page 112, seq.) 

* Report of Committee of Fifteen, p. 38. 



109 



GENERAL FOUNDATION STAGE 

Natural Science. — * " Natural science claims a 
place in the elementary school, not so much as 
a disciplinary study side by side with grammar, 
arithmetic and history, as a training in habits 
of observation and in the use of the technique 
by which such sciences are expounded. With 
a knowledge of the technical terms and some 
training in the methods of original investiga- 
tion employed in the sciences, the pupil 
broadens his views of the world and greatly 
increases his capacity to acquire new knowl- 
edge. For the pupil who is unacquainted 
with the technique of science has to pass with- 
out mental profit the numerous scientific allu- 
sions and items of information which more 
and more abound in all our literature, whether 
of an ephemeral or permanent character. In 
an age whose proudest boast is the progress of 
science in all domains, there should be in the 
elementary school, from the first, a course in 
the elements of the sciences. And this is 
quite possible ; for each science possesses some 
phases that lie very near to the child's life." 

* Report of Committee of Fifteen, pp. 38, 39, 42, 43. 

no 



RELATIVE VALUES OF STUDIES 

" It is understood by your Committee that 
the lessons in physiology and hygiene (with 
special reference to the effects of stimulants 
and narcotics) required by State laws should 
be included in the oral course in natural 
science 

Manual Training.—" Manual training, so far 
as theory and use of the tools for working in 
wood and iron are concerned, has just claims 
on the elementary school for a reason similar 
to that which admits natural science." 

Vocal Music. — " Vocal music has long since 
obtained a well established place in all ele- 
mentary schools. The labors of two genera- 
tions of special teachers have reduced the steps 
of instruction to such simplicity that whole 
classes may make as regular progress in read- 
ing music as in reading literature." 

Physical Training. — " Systematic physical 
training has for its object rather the will train- 
ing than recreation, and this must not 
be forgotten. To go from a hard les- 
son to a series of calisthenic exercises 
is to go from one kind of will training to an- 
other. Exhaustion of the will should be fol- 



III 



GENERAL FOUNDATION STAGE 

lowed by the wild freedom and caprice of 
the recess. But systematic physical exercise 
has its sufficient reason in its aid to a grace- 
ful use of the limbs, its development of 
muscles that are left unused or rudimentary 
unless called forth by special training, and for 
the help it gives to the teacher in the way of 
school discipline. 

Morals and Manners. — " Your Committee 
would mention, in this connection, instruction 
in morals and manners, which ought to be 
given in a brief series of lessons each year 
with the view to build up in the mind a 
theory of the conventionalities of polite and 

pure-minded society It is, of 

course, understood by your Committee that 
the substantial moral training of the school is 
performed by the discipline rather than by the 
instruction in ethical theory." 
Herbartian Viezv — Three Classes of Studies. — On 
the other hand, the Herbartians, who hold that 
the controlling aim of education should be moral, 
and that content values should determine the rela- 
tive importance of the several branches of study, 
make a broad division of these branches into 



112 



HERB ART I AN VIEW 

three classes — history, the natural sciences, and 
the formal studies. 

History. — * " History, in our present sense, 
includes what we usually understand by it, as 
United States History, modern and ancient 
history, also biography, tradition, fiction as ex- 
pressing human life, and the novel or romance, 
and historical and literary masterpieces of all 
sorts, as the drama and the epic poem, so far 
as they delineate man's experience and char- 
acter." 

The leading place in the curriculum must be 
given to the historical group, the Herbartians 
maintain, since it deals more comprehensively 
than any other group with the highest and most 
potent elements of life. They declare that all 
those general interests mentioned above, moral, 
intellectual, physical, and social, are involved in 
their natural and most fruitful relations. The 
biographical element in history and in literature 
will do more toward the formation of strong 
moral character than can all the other combined 
forces of study; and this, because in this stage of 
student life the student builds up his moral char- 
* Chas. McMurry, General Method, p. 20. 



GENERAL FOUNDATION STAGE 

acter chiefly in imitation of the forceful charac- 
ters whom he meets in history or in actual life, 
and not from those dreaded ebullitions of moral 
platitudes which are so often sandwiched in with 
his instruction in other branches in order to fill 
up their natural lack of m.oral culture qualities. 
The potency of the historical group for intellec- 
tual culture is not inferior to that of either of 
the other groups. In comprehensiveness of vi- 
sion, in humanity of sentiment, and in the lofti- 
ness of the ideals which it holds out, it stands 
unrivalled. In the invaluable art of forming 
keen, practical judgments upon the workings of 
complicated and contingent influences, such judg- 
ments as the successful worker finds indispensa- 
ble in everyday life as well as in the weightiest 
moments of his career, it is unquestionably the 
most valuable group. The influence of historical 
studies upon the physical education of the stu- 
dent is a strong one. He discovers that the great 
personages of history have almost invariably been 
possessed of a seemingly inexhaustible fund of 
physical vitality; and this bit of suggestive in- 
formation thus gained is. doubtless, one of the 
most stimulating factors which make for the phys- 



114 



HERB ART I AN VIEW 

ical education of the aspiring youth. To his- 
tory, moreover, we must look for a broad and 
philosophical conception of society in its polit- 
ical, economic, literary, and religious aspects, lo- 
cally, nationally, and universally. The thrilling 
stories of the origin of local self-governments in 
this country, of the building of nations and of 
our own in particular, and of those great move- 
ments that are bringing about the universal 
brotherhood of man, can not fail to be of pro- 
found benefit to those who will some day have 
charge of affairs. 

Natural Science. — They hold that the value of 
natural science is second only to that of history, 
and withal a very close second. If we are to ac- 
cept the fundamental truth that education is for 
life work and that success in life depends upon 
an accurate understanding of the conditions amid 
which we are to labor, then the natural sciences 
must be assigned a leading place in our courses 
of study. Herbert Spencer has stated the sig- 
nificance of scientific knowledge in a much- 
quoted passage from " Education " ; 

" For leaving out only some very small 

classes, what are all men employed in? They 

115 



GENERAL FOUNDATION STAGE 

are employed in the production, preparation, 
and distribution of commodities. And on 
what does efficiency in the production, prepara- 
tion, and distribution of commodities depend? 
It depends on the use of methods fitted to the 
respective nature of these commodities, it de- 
pends on an adequate knowledge of their 
physical, chemical, or vital properties, as the 
case may be ; that is, it depends on science. 
This order of knowledge, which is in great 
part ignored in our school courses, is the order 
of knowledge underlying the right perform- 
ance of all those processes by which civilized 
life is made possible. Undeniable as is this 
truth, and thrust upon us as it is at every 
turn there seems to be no living consciousness 
of it. Its very familiarity makes it unregarded. 

All our industries would cease 

were it not for that information which men 
begin to acquire as they best may after their 
education is said to be finished. And were 
it not for this information that has been from 
age to age accumulated and spread by unoffi- 
cial means, these industries would never have 
existed. Had there been no teaching but such 

ii6 



HERB ART I AN VIEW 

as is given in our public schools, England 
would now be what it was in feudal times. 
That increasing acquaintance with the laws of 
nature which has through successive ages ena- 
bled us to subjugate nature to our needs, and 
in these days gives to the common laborer 
comforts which a few centuries ago kings 
could not purchase, is scarcely in any degree 
owed to the appointed means of instructing 
our youth. The vital knowledge — that by 
which we have grown as a nation to what we 
are, and which now underlies our whole exist- 
ence — is a knowledge that has got itself 
taught in nooks and corners, while the or- 
dained agencies for teaching have been mum- 
blin-g little else but dead formulas." 

Since Mr, Spencer made these observations 
there has come a great change in favor of scien- 
tific instruction ; but there is stil^ considerable 
room for improving our courses of study in this 
department. Scientific knowledge is necessary 
not only to industrial and national progress, it un- 
derlies as well all the fundamental operations of 
everyday life. Look about and you will witness 
on every side failures in measures relating to the 

117 



GENERAL FOUNDATION STAGE 

public welfare, in private occupations, and in 
physical health and strength, simply through 
ignorance of the regularly ordained workings of 
physical, chemical, and biological laws. If there 
is a preeminent feature, besides the moral differ- 
ence, in which an enlightened nation is superior 
to a barbarian tribe, it is in the greater insight 
into nature and in the application of the laws of 
natural science to personal life building and to 
organized society building. So, in proportion as 
we form high ideals of our position in life, in 
that proportion ought we to ground ourselves 
in those scientific principles underlying and reg- 
ulating human affairs. Otherwise it is idle to 
expect satisfactory results. 

Natural science study is entitled to a higher 
standard of moral culture than is usually ac- 
corded it. It is through natural science that we 
are brought face to face with the Ruler of the 
universe in His visible manifestations. Here is 
supplemented the Revealed Word, here the 
mighty and eternal thoughts are written which 
hold within themselves to uplift and expand and 
enrich the earnest seeker after truth, and this 
to a degree utterly beyond the power of words 

ii8 



HERB ART I AN VIEW 

to circumscribe. No healthy mind can read fur- 
ther and further into the book of nature without 
becoming more and more imbued with profound 
reverence for the Author and without absorbing 
somewhat of that Divine beneficence which 
reaches out on every side to help our fellow- 
workers up to an ever higher, nobler life. True 
scientific study does not make atheists and pessi- 
mists; not at all. In truth, why should it? To 
paraphrase Dean Stanley's pertinent sarcasm, 
why should eating dinner cause one to doubt the 
existence of the cook ? That some scientists have 
been pessimists and others atheists, does not mil- 
itate against the moral culture power of science, 
any more than it militates against religion that 
some of the bloodiest and most awful crimes in 
all history have been committed in her name. 
There have been, and still are, mistakes and 
shortcomings in all departments of human ex- 
perience. The day is rapidly drawing near when 
natural science will be universally recognized as 
possessing a rich and efficacious moral culture 
power for the student. 

The chief disciplinary value of natural science 
lies in the creation of what is called " the scien- 



119 



GENERAL FOUNDATION STAGE 

tific spirit " in the student. The distinguishing 
characteristics of this attitude may be stated to 
be, ( I ) the spirit of investigation, which accepts 
nothing merely because of traditionary standing 
but seeks patiently to find the basis for the truth 
involved; (2) the spirit of self-reliance, grow- 
ing out of the practice of individually conduct- 
ing experimental investigations; (3) the power 
of discriminative observation, which is always 
kept in a high state of activity in science study; 
(4) the habit of inductive reasoning, for the cul- 
ture of which natural science affords especially 
valuable materials. 

In passing, it is worth while to notice that an 
appreciative understanding of the beautiful in 
nature is one of the chief bases of aesthetic cul- 
ture, and that this intelligent appreciation can 
come in no other way than by an intelligent study 
of nature. One who is possessed of even ordi- 
nary taste and imagination, can not associate with 
nature for any considerable period of time with- 
out becoming inspired and enriched by the mar- 
velous handiworks of his Creator. 

Mathematics. — In spite of usages prevailing for 
centuries, it is contended by the Herbartians 

120 



HERBARTIAN VIEW 

that mathematics and the languages should not 
occupy their present autocratic positions in the 
curriculum of general foundation study. It is 
not attempted to decry the disciplinary value of 
these two great groups of studies. It is not de- 
nied that the mathematical group is strong in 
securing the power of sustained concentration of 
effort. It is admitted that training in mathemat- 
ics is productive of effective dealing with those 
problems in which the factors involved are few 
and definite. Yet it is urged, if mathematical 
training is made so dominant as to establish a 
special bent of mind it is injurious, since the 
majority of the practical problems of life are 
made up of factors neither few nor definite ; that 
is, th^y can not be dealt with by mathematical 
methods. For practical purposes an accurate 
knowledge of the fundamental operations of 
arithmetic is, of course, indispensable; but this 
work m.ay be done, and well done, it is claimed, 
in less time than it usually occupies. 

It is pointed out that perhaps the most notice- 
ably injurious results of a too rigorous mathe- 
matical training as affecting one's power to deal 
with life problems, are to be found in the realm 

121 



GENERAL FOUNDATION STAGE 

of educational activities. Those whose duty it 
has been to create educational methods, to map 
out courses of study by which the student should 
be led into fullness of development, instead of 
investigating the whole field of educational phil- 
osophy with the comprehensiveness of vision 
which historical and scientific studies offer, have 
practically ignored all factors in study, except 
that of discipline. With a narrowness and a 
concentrated energy for which the mathemati- 
cian is famous in dealing with practical affairs, 
these educational leaders have chosen discipline as 
their educational idol and demanded absolute de- 
votion to it, relegating to subordinate positions 
all those studies like history and science which 
do not furnish the peculiar training along the 
lines of their own development. But enough on 
the dangers of too exclusive study of mathe- 
matics. That a respectable place in the curric- 
ulum should be given to mathematical study is 
necessary, of course, and is undisputed by the 
Herbartians. 

The Languages. — It is claimed that the lan- 
guages, including grammar, should not be as- 
signed a leading place in general foundation 



122 



HERBARTIAN VIEW 

study, at any rate in the latter part of the course, 
although it is admitted there is need for a mod- 
erate study of the languages. There are certain 
essentials of character culture which the lan- 
guages are best fitted to furnish.. But, these lead- 
ers assert, it does not follow as a logical con- 
clusion that the study of a foreign language shall 
be made a predominant phase of any particular 
period in the course now under consideration — 
that is, up to what is now the grade of work 
done in the third year of the best high schools. A 
thorough command of his own language is, of 
course, indispensable for every student who ex- 
pects to achieve any considerable results in life; 
and the greater part of the time given to lan- 
guage- training ought, by every rule of common 
experience and by every principle of educational 
practice, to be applied to the mastery of that na- 
tive language upon which one must depend 
largely for the ability to communicate to others 
his soul activities — in our case, the English lan- 
guage. The reasons for this emphasis upon one's 
native language are so simple and so everwhelm- 
ing that we should naturally expect to find them 
universally recognized. What is our surprise, 

123 



GENERAL FOUNDATION STAGE 

then, to find that most of our leading high schools 
and academies have been subordinating English 
to Latin, and in many cases, to Greek and French 
and German; and not satisfied with that, have 
been attempting to introduce these foreign lan- 
guages even earlier than the beginning of the 
high school course! There can be no justifiable 
reason for such tenacious clinging to mediaeval 
traditions which are in flat contradiction to the 
whole philosophy of modern life. 

Of course these languages possess a disciplin- 
ary value. Generally speaking, the study of a for- 
eign language ought to furnish training in dis- 
crimination, in accuracy of mental work, and in 
patient investigation; but in these respects, al- 
though of great value, it is held by many to be 
inferior to studies in the natural sciences. The 
chief value of the modern languages, especially 
French and German, lies in their practical worth 
as tools of scholarship, since many writings, in- 
dispensable to the advanced student, are found 
only in these two languages; a practical knowl- 
edge of them is often valuable in business rela- 
tions. As for Latin and Greek, more particularly 
Latin, they contribute to a better understanding 

124 



HERBARTIAN VIEW 

of our own language, as we borrowed much from 
them. Yet none of these reasons is sufficient to 
justify the compulsory study of any of these 
languages, with the possible exception of Latin. 
The chief disciplinary values assigned to Latin 
and Greek are that the study of Latin will turn 
the mind's view toward laws and institutions, the 
fundamental principles of society; and that the 
study of Greek directs one " toward philosophi- 
cal and literary views of the world." It is true 
that the ancient Roman and Greek civilizations 
contained much of great value for all times, that 
in political and governmental institutions Rome 
is worthy of careful study, and that the literature 
and philosophy of the Greeks ought to be com- 
prehended, at least in outline, by every student 
who is endowed with a love for the beautiful and 
with a spirit of freedom. However, it is said, 
the essence of these civilizations can be got from 
historical study in a fraction of the time required 
to secure the same results by the mastery of these 
languages, and the historical work be well done, 
too. If it be urged that four or five or six years 
of work in these languages will put the student 
more into the spirit of these ancient peoples, that 

125 



GENERAL FOUNDATION STAGE 

it will enable him to enter into their life with 
greater fullness, the Herbartians reply that the 
young student has no business entering with full- 
ness into the life of another people. Let him stay 
at home intellectually until he has assimilated the 
American spirit in the fullness and richness of all 
its nobler qualities, and postpone his extended in- 
tellectual travels until he is of sufficient maturity 
to maintain his sociological balance. Who will 
deny that these same prolonged foreign travels 
intellectually are the dominant cause of our class- 
ical educators being so painfully out of harmony 
with the conditions of modern society? "No 
man can serve two masters," etc. 

The greatest value of Latin and Greek con- 
sists, undoubtedly, in the immortal literary mas- 
terpieces embalmed therein. Homer, Xenophon, 
Cicero, and Virgil need no encomium. Their 
works will deservedly endure for all time. And 
if it were not that there is an abundance of mas- 
terpieces in our own language, we might well 
insist upon a thorough acquaintance with these 
ancient masterpieces during this period. As it is, 
many insist we have a plentiful supply of valu- 
able literature in English for all the literary de- 

126 



HERBARTIAN VIEW 

mands of general foundation study, and more 
than enough. True, the understanding of an- 
other language, if it be an allied one, will throw 
added light upon the understanding of our own; 
and for this reason, one, at least, of the languages 
mentioned above may be taken up with profit 
during the latter part of this course. For this 
purpose, as well as for all-around advantages, 
Latin offers the largest inducements, for reasons 
already stated ; although local circumstances may, 
in some cases, make another language more val- 
uable, particularly if the student resides in a re- 
gion inhabited largely by people not entirely 
broken away from foreign ways. 

Rational Viezu. — The foregoing states substan- 
tially,, as commonly understood, the positions of 
the two great classes of thinkers on the question 
of the relative values of studies in the elementary 
school. One of the greatest problems of public 
school pedagogy, and the problem lying at the 
basis of the science of elementary education, is 
to determine how much of truth there is in each 
of these philosophies. 



127 



GENERAL FOUNDATION STAGE 

Gist of Difference between Disciplinary and 
Herbartian Views. — * " The gist of the dif- 
ference between these two philosophies . . 
. . . is the difference which they place (i) 
upon the native tendencies of each hu- 
man being that lead him away from a fixed 
common type of mankind, and (2) upon that 
universal or rational type. The one [interest] 
proceeds upon the view that each peculiar and 
individual expression of the common human 
nature is the one fact of truly cardinal value ; 
while the other [discipline] proceeds upon the 
view that the supreme consideration must be 
the type characteristically human — not private 
and peculiar, but public, generic, and, above 
all, historic. The one fills its eye with the 
single human being and his peculiar whole of 
personal endowment, in no other exactly re- 
peated, and incapable of being replaced by any- 
thing but itself ; the other with the imposing 
whole of the universal rational nature, in com- 
parison with which individual variations seem 
trivial, and which appears clothed with the au- 

* Dr. G. H. Howison, in the Public School Journal, 
July, 1896. 

128 



RELATIVE VALUES OF STUDIES 

thority and majesty of history, and with the 
incomparable warrant of a public judgment 
that has borne the test of time, of experience, 
of the long conflict of considerate reflection 
and experience - sobered forethought with the 
complex and adverse circumstances amid 
which the race has had to mature. The one, 
therefore, finds the chief motives of educational 
aims and methods in the interests of the single 
pupil: the other, in the rational authority of 
the human type, historically developed and 
tested and warranted. The watchword of the 
Q^Q \s that kindling word, In- 
terest; of the other ..... the com- 
manding word, Duty, the bracing word, Char- 
acter, the invigorating phrase, A Reasonable 
Life. Everywhere the one philosophy - • • 
echoes to the theme of election in educa- 
tion— the greatest possible range of free 
choice by the individual student as to what he 
will study, guided by what he finds answering 
to his native interests in subjects; everywhere 
the other, to the theme of a rational system of 
subjects for study, which is held to express the 
universal reason of mankind in its several es- 

129 



GENERAL FOUNDATION STAGE 

sential aspects, and which must enter into 
every scheme of education that can claim to 
be truly human, in the sense of being genuinely 
reasonable. Thus the one philosophy . . . 
. . finds the master-principles of education 
in personal native impulse, in personal Desire; 
the other finds it in a public or generic intelli- 
gent judgment, that gets at the abiding heart 
of human nature with all the mass and mo- 
mentum of history — in a universal Rational 
Will, which is to judge, to master, and to use, 
all individual desires." 

A Problem of Relative Emphasis.— In spite of the 
apparent antagonism of these two sets of princi- 
ples, it is an antagonism due more to extreme 
views and radical methods than to the intrinsic 
irreconcilableness of the two principles involved. 
They are both essential to a healthy, normal de- 
velopment ; and the question is not, whether either 
one must be supreme, but rather, what is the rel- 
ative emphasis that shall be given to each of 
these great principles, in a rational and organic 
system of education. 



130 



RELATIVE VALUES OF STUDIES 

Unity of Duty and Interest. — * " The progress 
of civilization is marked by the growth of the 
tendency to fuse these two principles into one 
— the unity of institutions and individuals, of 
duty and interest. One's greatest interest is 
in that which he conceives of greatest worth to 
him. 

" It is the function of education to make 
clear that the thing that is really of greatest 
worth to him as an individual, and which is, 
therefore, most interesting, and the thing that 
duty, or Character, or a reasonable life de- 
mands, are not opposed, but are one and the 
same thing. Individual peculiar interest and 
public duty are to be identified, and how best 
to do this is the real problem in education. 
Principles Governing Solution of Problem. — It ap- 
peals overwhelmingly to our reason that duty and 
interest ought to be identified and made to work 
together organically. But in what way and upon 
what principles can this be done ? The answ^er to 
this is found in the functions of each great stage 
of study, as outlined in the preceding chapter 
and discussed more at length in this and succeed- 

* Editorial, Public School Journal, July, 1896. 



GENERAL FOUNDATION STAGE 

ing chapters. ( i ) General foundation study — 
at present the first ten school years, and under a 
more closely organized system the first eight 
school years — " deals with the student while his 
peculiar powers are yet undeveloped (at least in a 
practicable, teachable form) and seeks to culti- 
vate those powers common to all students and to 
furnish knowledge of universal value." This can 
mean nothing else than the supremacy of the dis- 
ciplinary studies in this stage, subject to gradual 
modification in the later years of the stage as the 
special powers of the student begin manifesting 
themselves in an unmistakable manner. (2) 
With the leading stage emphasis upon interest 
studies properly begins. They should be subor- 
dinate to the disciplinary studies in the first part 
of the stage, but gradually increasing in impor- 
tance, in correspondence to the chief function of 
leading study which aims " to draw out the pe- 
culiar powers of the student by feeding him that 
educational food upon which he is best fitted to 
grow, and in such increasing proportion of fa- 
vored work as his evolving character will call for 
from time to time." (3) In the professional 
preparatory stage the three-fold aim makes a 

132 



ESTHETIC TRAINING 

varied demand, (a) The professional prepara- 
tory work — the backbone of this stage — should 
be determined, of course, by the special profes- 
sional interests of the individual student, but 
conditioned by the requirements of the particular 
profession. This work should form a rational, 
organic whole, (b) The semi-professional work 
of this stage must be determined by the sociolog- 
ical relations of the particular -profession for 
which the student is preparing. This will be 
considered more at length further on. (c) The 
general culture work of this stage should be 
three- fold : First, in those studies that afford a 
comprehensive, universal view of life and the 
material world ; Second, in those studies pertain- 
ing to intelligent and practical citizenship ; Third, 
in those non-professional subjects that are of 
special interest to the student. (4) The character 
of the work for the professional stage should be 
approximately the same as for the professional 
preparatory stage, with greater relative emphasis 
on professional subjects. This is discussed more 
fully in a subsequent chapter. 

Aesthetic Training. — Just a few words on 
aesthetic training in this course. By aesthetics 
in this connection is meant vocal music, model- 



133 



GENERAL FOUNDATION STAGE 

ing, drawing, and color. These have been gen- 
erally looked upon as mere accomplishments, and 
their introduction into the courses of certain 
schools was the signal for a popular outcry of 
" fads." But nevertheless they have already es- 
tablished their right to a worthy place in the 
public school program. For not only do they 
minister to the highest elements of our being, 
uplifting and beautifying and enriching the emo- 
tional life through countless avenues inaccessible 
to literary agencies, but they are among the most 
substantial of those branches that make directly 
for success in practical business relations and in 
social influence. 

Music— The culture value of music may be 
briefliy summarized as (i) aesthetic, (2) disci- 
plinary, (3) social, (4) moral. Everyone who 
comprehends the philosophy of character-build- 
ing, appreciates the contribution of a rich and 
varied emotional life to completeness of existence. 
Not to be alive to the power of music is to dwell 
outside the realm of many of the sweetest, ten- 
derest, and most sublime experiences that the 
human heart may know. Who will say that 
something in him entirely beyond his intellectual 

134 



mSTHETIC TRAINING 

parts has not been appealed to by that beautiful 
creation of Sullivan's — The Lost Chord ? Who 
can listen to that supremely sweet song of the 
Sanctus without being almost overwhelmed by 
the infinite tenderness of which the human heart 
is capable? Who that has heard that wonderful 
Oratorio of the Messiah, Christmas after Christ- 
mas, has not been thrilled by its almost omnip- 
otent power; and, when the sublime Hallelujah 
Chorus has burst upon his ears, has not felt like 
exclaiming with its great composer, " I did think 
I saw all heaven before me, and the great God 
himself"? 

The disciplinary value of music is not infe- 
rior to that of most orthodox studies in training 
for observation, expression, imagination, and 
concentration. Nor is its influence for physical 
culture by any means insignificant. Socially, 
there is no more potent factor scattering its in- 
fluence of sunshine and helpfulness throughout 
the home and the community, at church and at 
social gatherings. Few other qualifications win 
social influence so quickly as does a good musical 
ability when coupled with a benevolent common 
sense. And it wins recognition thus easily, be- 

135 



GENERAL FOUNDATION STAGE 

cause of its potentiality for infusing a higher 
Hfe into everything of which it becomes a part. 
Man naturally desires to associate with those who 
can commune with his higher nature ; it is a sim- 
ple law of social gravitation. A musical educa- 
tion is not only thus valuable for the general 
social welfare, but to the young man or young 
woman, starting out in life away from home and 
struggling with might and main to secure at least 
a respectable recognition, it becomes a veritable 
" open sesame " into the community life. The 
moral value of music has been well put in the 
lofty words of Mrs. Herrick : 

" It has been doubted whether music pos- 
sesses any moral element. If it is really the 
language of emotion, and our emotions give 
birth to motives, there can be no question that 
music has a bearing upon our spiritual well- 
being Elevated and pure as 

music is, as a ministrant to man, we would de- 
prive it of its chief dignity if we failed to ac- 
knowledge its moral effect. We must ad- 
mit that there is a region which lies beyond 
the reach of ideas — not only beyond, 
but above it — which can be penetrated 

136 



AESTHETIC TRAINING 

by melody. Every soul that has ever 
felt a true adoration for the goodness and 
glory and majesty of the Infinite must have 
known some time in its career what it is to lose 
all cognizance of time and place, even of 
' things present and things to come', in a rapt 
contemplation of that which is beyond the 
reach of thought. Then every faculty and 
every sense stand aside reverently, while' the 
soul, thrilled through and through with trem- 
bling and adoring love, bows in the presence 
of its God. Nay, the soul that has ever felt 
an all-absorbing, self-forgetful love for a hu- 
man being which it has placed, however un- 
worthily, above itself, can recall some supreme 
moment when it arose higher and still higher 
till thought had reached the limit of its domain, 
and there left it filled with emotions which no 
human language has been invented to express. 
There is a silent, rapt communion higher than 
prayer ; and a still, speechless sympathy deeper 
than words. As there is in the realm of 
emotion a region which lies somewhere nearer 
heaven than thought will ever be, so whatever 
exalts in any measure above itself can not be 

137 



GENERAL FOUNDATION STAGE 

wanting in an element of moral power, and can 
not be without its moral influence." 
Art. — Thus much on the claims of vocal music 
to a place in the general foundation curriculum. 
As to art education, it not only develops a love 
for the beautiful, exercising a refining influence 
over the student's intellectual labors and even 
over his whole conduct, and elevating his ideals 
of life'; but it also affords training for features 
of life that are practical, intensely practical. On 
the practical value of art education Dr. William 
T, Harris says : 

" Inasmuch as the true industrial education 
is art education, the progress of the common 
schools in introducing instruction calculated to 
cultivate the taste of the pupils for genuine 
works of art is of great significance. The in- 
vention of new machinery is gradually driving 
out the drudgery of work by hand. More 
and more persons are laboring with the brain 
and fewer with the mere hand. With the in- 
crease of production by machinery more indi- 
viduals in the community can be spared for 
those vocations which add ornament to goods. 
Fewer persons are needed to gather the raw 

1.^8 



ESTHETIC TRAINING 

material, more are needed to manufacture it 
into articles of luxury and ornament. Those 
nations whose workmen display the highest 
order of taste in the finish of their goods hold 
the markets of the world and increase more 
rapidly in wealth." 

Says James McAlister, speaking more com- 
prehensively : 

* " The use of the term ' art education ' in 
connection with the public education has long 
been a bugbear to many so-called practical peo- 
ple. To such persons the word art in connec- 
tion with the public schools savors of some- 
thing unpractical, something that is for special 
pupils, something for the benefit of the few 
rather than for the many ; and yet a right un- 
derstanding of the relations of art to daily life 
shows this to be an entire misconception of the 
subject. It is a fact apparent to every observ- 
ing person that the social life of our people 
is lamentably wanting in an appreciation of the 
beautiful in nature as the highest truth of na- 
ture, and of the beautiful in human life and 
work as the highest truth of character. This 
* U. S. Education Report, 1894-95, pp. 797, 803. 

1^9 



GENERAL FOUNDATION STAGE 

is apparent in the homes, in the amusements, 
and in the social customs of our people gener- 
ally. In the scramble for wealth that is going 
on, people are losing sight of the fundamental 
ethical principles that hold society together, 
and are making a pretense of living. Now, 
art education, which is the study of beauty as 
the highest truth in human nature and in 
human life, can be directed powerfully against 
this social demoralization, and hence we should 
be prepared to advocate art education in the 
schools as a potent agency in the uplifting and 

improvement of the community 

Reference has already been made to the want 
of art culture among our people. This is one 
of the noticeable facts connected with our so- 
cial life, and yet the student of history 
sees that man's creations in art are among 
his highest achievements, and that they 
are identified with his highest moral and 
spiritual development. In the perspective 
of history it is the art creations of 
Athens and Rome and Florence and Ven- 
ice, enshrining as they do some of the 
loftiest conceptions of the human mind, that 

140 



SUMMARY 

make these cities immortal in the memory of 
man. As a people we are ig'norant of the up- 
lifting and ennobHng influence of art ; and yet 
we have in our public school system the grand- 
est opportunity that was ever given to carry a 
love for the beautiful into every home, to make 
it the possession of every man and woman 
in the land. But we may look into the future 
with hope. With the growth of our national 
power and the development of our material 
resources, we are broadening our education, 
and thereby opening the way for a better, a 
nobler, a happier existence for the people." 
Summary. — These five great groups constitute 
the material of general foundation study — 
History, Science, Mathematics, Language, Es- 
thetics. Reason demands that they be distributed 
in proportion to their relative educational 
values. The welfare of the pupil makes it im- 
perative. On no other basis can he realize the 
completeness of his inherent powers. Great 
advancement has been made in the last 
few years toward fusing the disciplinary and 
knowledge aims — character and interest — in 
the elementary school; but there is need for a 

141 



GENERAL FOUNDATION STAGE 

much closer and more organic union to be 
wrought out. 

Principles Governing Length of Stage. — 
Subjective.— The principles governing the length 
of time ordinarily required for completion of gen- 
eral foundation study have been, it is believed, 
amply stated in the preceding chapter. The chief 
question in this connection is, whether the dura- 
tion of this period of study shall be determined 
from an objective or a subjective standpoint — 
that is, from the nature of the several branches of 
study, or from the nature of the pupil himself. It 
has been the usage in the past to make the divid- 
ing line between elementary and secondary knowl- 
edge the line of demarcation between the first two 
great stages of the public school system — be- 
tween the common school and the high school. 
From the objective standpoint of scholarship this 
is a natural and philosophical division, but it is 
the opinion of many leading educators that the in- 
troduction of secondary studies should begin two 
years earlier than at present — with the seventh 
grade rather than the ninth. 

* " In recommending the introduction of 

* Report of Committee of Fifteen, pp. 44, 45. 
142 



PRINCIPLES GOVERNING 

algebraic processes in the seventh and eighth 
yelrs — as well as in the recommendation just 
now made to introduce Latin in the eighth year 
of the elementary course -your Committee 
has come face to face with the question of the 
intrinsic difference between elementary and 
secondary studies." 

Many others go farther than the distinguished 
chairman of the Committee of Fifteen, and hold 
that secondary studies in general should begm 
with the seventh grade. 

* " In the opinion of the Committee, sev- 
eral subjects now reserved for high schools — 
such as algebra, geometry, natural science, and 
foreign languages - should be begun earlier 
than now. and therefore within the schools 
classified as elementary; or, as an alternative, 
the secondary school period should be made to 
begin two years earlier than at present, leaving 
six years instead of eight for the elementary 
school period. Under the present organi- 
zation, elementary subjects and elementary 
methods are, in the judgment of the Commit- 
tee, kept in use too long." 

* Report of Committee of Ten, p. 45- 

143 



GENERAL FOUNDATION STAGE 

Economy of Educative Effort.— It is o£ funda- 
mental importance in the economy of educative 
effort, that the period of elementary education be 
brought down to its proper limits. If the sev- 
enth and eighth school years be spent chiefly or 
wholly on elementary instruction when the chil- 
dren are, by reason of their mental training, qual- 
ified to be at work on secondary studies, it means 
that the thousands of boys and girls who leave 
school during these two years, or at the begin- 
ning of the present high school period — will go 
out into the world with very little, or practically 
not any, mental training in the formation of gen- 
eral notions and in the grasp of the manifold in- 
terrelations of nature and of humanity; a train- 
ing which is indispensable to the educated man 
or woman, and which many of our ablest edu- 
cators believe should be begun during the seventh 
school year. 

Change of Emphasis. — While it would not 
essentially affect the knowledge material of ele- 
mentary and secondary education, yet it seems 
to many to be a matter of vital consequence that, 
in the organization of our system of schools — 
public and higher — the emphasis be changed 

144 



CHANGE OF EMPHASIS 

from the objective phase — knowledge — to the 
subjective phase — the student himself — as dis- 
cussed in the previous chapter on the Organic 
Structure of Study. No one denies that the stu- 
dent himself is, or should be, the center of all 
educational effort, and the laws of his develop- 
ment the arbiter of the whole scheme of educa- 
tional institutions from the kindergarten to the 
university. The recognition of this principle in the 
public schools would not require any subversive 
change in organization or in study material. It 
would mean simply a formal recognition of what 
is already being done in our best schools — giving 
a general and balanced education in each of the 
five great divisions of knowledge, up to the elev- 
enth grade, or the third year of the present high 
school period, and then permitting the student to 
elect from several courses the one in which he 
manifests most interest, for the last two years of 
his high school work. From the standpoint of the 
student, it is pretty generally agreed that under 
our present system the first ten school years con- 
stitute one phase of his school life, the period 
during which he studies simply from the desire 
for mental exercise and for the acquirement of 



145 



GENERAL FOUNDATION STAGE 

knowledge in general, and before he has yet de- 
veloped any special or professional interests. 
This is the period during which he lays the foun- 
dation for his future mental structure, the stage 
of general foundation study, and by a closely or- 
ganic adjustment of school work this purpose 
ought to be accomplished in the first eight school 
years, that is, after six years of elementary study 
and two years of secondary study. 



146 



CHAPTER VL 

THE LEADING STAGE 

Appearance of Special Interest. — Somewhere 
in the earh'er part of their career most students 
begin to manifest a more than ordinary interest 
in some group or groups of studies. As every- 
one acquainted with the development of students 
knows, this decisive pecuHarity of mental attitude 
does not appear at the same age for all. With 
some it comes early, with others not until late; 
but with the great majority it appears in a defi- 
nite teachable form somewhere between the ages 
of ten and fourteen. By the studies in which 
most interest is taken is meant the studies that 
the student likes best, not necessarily the ones 
most easy for him to master. There is sometimes 
a difference in this respect. 

Basis of Leading Study. — The intelligent 
understanding of this special interest is of pe- 
culiar significance for educational purposes, for 

147 



THE LEADING STAGE 

it is the forerunner of professionalism, the first 
indefinite, instinctive manifestation of that pro- 
fessional spirit which will ultimately become the 
dominating motive power of the student's life ac- 
tivities. Therefore, if it be the purpose of study, 
as it is, to take hold upon the powers of the stu- 
dent in the order of their natural manifestation 
and to lead out these powers into their rational 
fullness, there must be planned a systematic 
course of study with special reference to draw- 
ing out this inherent bias for a particular group 
or groups of studies into a healthy, well-devel- 
oped professional spirit. 

* " Every man born into the world comes 
into it with the limitations of his work clearly 
defined by nature. The man who succeeds in 
life is simply the man who is fortunate enough 
to discover the thing nature intended him to 

do From the beginning the 

student should receive such treatment as 
will enable those who are watching his 
development to learn what he can do 
only with difficulty. But this is not to 

* Pres. Wm. R. Harper, Address before National 
Educational Association, 1895; U. S. Education Report, 
1895-96, pp. 1336-37- 

148 



BASIS OF LEADING STUDY 

be limited to the beginning; it should 
be continued to the very end of what 
would be called the preliminary period, a period 
which in the case of every individual con- 
tinues until the clearest evidence has been se- 
cured of the discovery of the principal work 
which the individual can do to advantage. 
When once the discovery has been made, the 
pupil should be allowed to devote himself, with 
certain qualifications, uninterruptedly to that 
for which, as experiment has shown, nature 
fitted him. The next aim will be to develop 
those functions which are capable of develop- 
ment. It will not be forgotten that the cul- 
ture shall be as broad as possible ; but it is 
true that the possible fields of mental culture 
are multitudinous, and that, after all, no man, 
however broadly cutivated, comes into contact 
with many of the fields. It must be admitted 
that a large part of educational work fails 
utterly of accomplishing the thing in view. 
Men pass through all grades of primary and 
secondary work, enter college and also do uni- 
versity work, and yet are reckoned by the 
world at large, and even by those most in- 

149 



THE LEADING STAGE 

timately associated with them, as failures. 
And as for adding anything- to the Hfe of 
themselves or others, they are failures. Why 
is this so? Because the idea has prevailed 
so extensively that men might be educated en 
masse ; that one after another they might be 
ground through the curriculum of study with- 
out reference to special taste and predilection." 

The Problem of Leading Study. — What shall 
be the character of a leading study course, when 
shall it begin, and how much of student life shall 
it occupy? When these questions are answered 
satisfactorily we shall have gained a clear vision 
into one of the most vital problems of student life ; 
a problem that educators have hitherto generally 
ignored or else have grappled with unsuccessfully 
and left in a state of technical fogginess. There 
is nothing really difficult, there are no occult 
factors, in the solution of this problem, if we sim- 
ply note closely the principles of growth in stu- 
dent life and adapt the courses of study to the 
needs of the student. The main source of con- 
fusion in this stage of education, as well as in 
the other stages, has been that the courses of 
study have been planned too much from the ob- 

150 



PROBLEM OF LEADING STUDY 

jective standpoint of knowledge and the student 
crowded into the arbitrary moulds. As is always 
her way, Nature refused to submit to any such 
second-rate method of growth. The endeavor to 
reconcile such irreconcilable differences has doubt- 
less been not altogether profitable, and it has cer- 
tainly been entirely unnecessary. There can be 
no substitute for, nor compromise on, natural 
principles of unfoldment 

Progress toward Recognition of This Special Interest. 
— Until within recent years most schools seem to 
have been totally unconscious of any such devel- 
opment in the nature of the student calling for 
individual attention, and consequently made no 
provision for it in their curricula. The same 
course was deemed sufficient for all students, and 
what was called a " classical education " was 
thought to be the only preparation necessary for 
professional study, and in many cases for entrance 
into life work. One does not need to be crowned 
with silver locks to remember when it was com- 
monly held impossible to be properly and thor- 
oughly educated without taking the classical 
course in secondary school and college — in fact, 

151 



THE LEADING STAGE 

when there was no other course in many institu- 
tions. 

Conditions are considerably changed now. 
High schools, academies, private normals, and 
colleges are well-nigh universally offering two 
or more parallel courses to meet the diverse in- 
terests of their students. As a matter of fact, 
however, these courses have, in many instances, 
been more a yielding to popular demands than an 
intelligent realization of a great educational prin- 
ciple. The truth has been stumbled upon by pro- 
pulsion rather than by attraction. But that mat- 
ters little. 

It chiefly concerns us here to determine in what 
way this bias for certain studies may be most nat- 
urally developed into a strong, healthy profess- 
ional spirit. Is there a scientific way of doing 
this, or is it all mere guess-work? One might 
reasonably suppose, after comparing these various 
courses in the different schools, which extend all 
the way from the brief and elementary courses 
in the so-called private normals to and through 
the full advanced courses in high-grade colleges, 
that it is a matter of comparative indifference 
what quantity of work is done, provided the stu- 



152 



CONDITIONS DETERMINING 

dent is given an opportunity to work along cer- 
tain arbitrary lines. Of course, the radical col- 
lege men will maintain that a full college train- 
ing is essential in order to develop the profes- 
sional spirit, and just as certainly will the radi- 
cally practical private normal men declare that 
there is no occasion for more than a very brief 
course of leading study; while the majority of 
observant educators are satisfied that both are 
in the wrong, that one side asks too little, the 
other entirely too much. 

Conditions Determining Period of Leading 
Study. — Upon what data, then, shall we decide 
the issue? Are there any conditions that deter- 
mine, even approximately when this study should 
begin, and how long it should continue? This 
was answered in the chapter on the organic struc- 
ture of study, in which the determining condi- 
tions are summarily sketched. More in detail 
they are : ( i ) the natural development of the stu- 
dent; (2) the requirements of general founda- 
tion study, which immediately precedes; (3) the 
demands of professional preparatory study, 
which immediately follows; and (4) the maxi- 

153 



THE LEADING STAGE 

mum limit under which the whole period of stu- 
dent life can bring- about the highest results. 

Natural Development of Student. — It is going over 
old ground to state that a cardinal principle of 
a true course of study is to conform as closely as 
possible to the individual requirements of the 
student. So simple a matter would not need em- 
phasis again and again were it not that it has 
been so much ignored in educational practice. 
If, then, we find this special interest in certain 
studies beginning to manifest itself in an unmis- 
takably natural way, we can not do otherwise 
than recognize that the nature of the student is 
making a special call for those particular kinds 
of life-building elements upon which it is inher- 
ently best fitted to grow. Nothing could be sim- 
pler. In truth, there can be no other interpre- 
tation. But leading study should not be taken 
up until it is reasonably certain that this partic- 
ular interest is prompted by an inherent fitness 
for such studies, and not by outside, accidental 
influences ; as, for instance, that a favorite 
teacher teaches such and such a branch, or that 
this or that branch has been made unusually at- 
tractive through the special interests of teacher 



154 



CONDITIONS DETERMINING 

or parents or associates. Yet it is not probable 
that any teacher with ordinary practical sagacity 
will find insurmountable dif¥iculty in dealing 
with this special feature of the problem. 

Preliminary Requirements of General Foundation 
Study. — The wisdom of not beginning leading 
study upon the student's first manifestations of 
special interest is particularly applicable in those 
cases where the bias appears at an unusually early 
age, for no one can tell what studies he possesses 
most capacity for until he has had a reasonable 
amount of work under each of the great divisions 
of knowledge — in other words, until he has com- 
pleted a satisfactory general foundation course. 
A somewhat extended experience in the school- 
room, confirmed by numerous reports of eminent 
educators, leads to the belief that a thorough 
general foundation course should under present 
conditions ordinarily comprise the equivalent of 
what is now done in the schools as far as the third 
year of first-class high schools — not less than 
this, and certainly not much more, unless for ur- 
gent reasons, as where the student has shown no 
special liking for any particular study or studies. 
* " The Committee of Ten attached great 

* Report of Committee of Ten, p. 45. 



THE LEADING STAGE 

importance to two general principles in pro- 
gram making : — In the first place they en- 
deavored to postpone till the third year (high 
school) the grave choice between the Classi- 
cal course and the Latin-Scientific. They 
believed that this bifurcation should occur as 
late as possible, since the choice between these 
two roads often determines for life the youth's 
career. Moreover, they believed that it is pos- 
sible to make this important decision for a 
boy on good grounds, only when he has had an 
opportunity to exhibit his quality and discover 
his tastes by making excursions into all the 
principal fields of knowledge. The youth who 
has never studied any but his native language 
can not know his own capacity for linguistic 
acquisition, and the youth who has never made 
a chemical or physicial experiment can not 
know whether or not he has a taste for exact 
science. The wisest teacher, or the most ob- 
servant parent, can hardly predict with con- 
fidence a boy's gift for a subject which he has 
never touched. In these considerations the 
Committee found strong reasons for postpon- 
ing bifurcation, and making the subjects of 

156 



CONDITIONS DETERMINING 

the first two years (high school) as truly 

representative as possible." 

It is now a generally recognized principle of 
high school program-making that all courses 
should be substantially the same through the 
ninth and tenth grades, and that bifurcation may 
best begin with the eleventh grade, or the third 
year of the present high school course. The con- 
sensus of opinion among our ablest superintend- 
ents and high school principals is that tlie aver- 
age pupil at the beginning of the eleventh school 
year is qualified to select with intelligence the par- 
ticular course of study which he desires to fol- 
low out during the remaining two years of the 
high school course. So, we find in practically 
all our best high schools, that, however numerous 
the courses offered, the first two years are sub- 
stantially the same. This has come about, not 
because of mere theoretical experiments, but be- 
cause a long and varied experience among public 
school educators has determined beyond doubt 
the wisdom of beginning leading study at approx- 
imately this point. 

General Principle Governing Length of Leading 
Stage. — Assuming, therefore, that, as a rule, the 

157 



THE LEADING STAGE 

most advantageous conditions for beginning lead- 
ing study require approximately the completion 
of as much general foundation work as is now 
done in the schools up to the close of the second 
year of standard high schools, we have further 
to inquire how much work this leading study 
stage should contain. In general, the logical an- 
swer, and, with some slight exceptions, a con- 
clusive one, is that leading study should be con- 
tinued imtil the student has matured sufficiently 
to make a clear and decisive choice of his future 
profession. That it should continue until he is 
prepared to take up professional preparatory 
study is self-evident from its nature, for that is 
its avowed purpose — the only reason for its 
existence. As to the definite quanity of work 
necessary, it is not to be expected that we can do 
more here than to approximate to the average 
time required for this course to complete its pur- 
pose, owing to the variability of development of 
different students. To set hard and fast limits 
might work great injury, more than in any other 
stage of the student's career. 

If the time set be too short, the natural ten- 
dency would be to exert undue influence to se- 

158 



CONDITIONS DETERMINING 

cure the desired end within the prescribed limits. 
To attempt forcing the choice of a profession 
will, in most cases, result in a premature deci- 
sion that later on will probably be reversed. Sev- 
eral cases are called to mind in which this actually 
occurred; but they were where powerful appeals 
had been made which prevailed upon the sym- 
pathies in opposition to the sober judgment of the 
students, and were not in any way the result of a 
systematic course of judicious training. In fact, 
it is felt that the surest way of preventing such 
powerful appeals and half-seen ideals from turn- 
ing the student aside into some by-path of his 
true career lies in just such a method of pro- 
cedure as is indicated in this connection. 

Demands of Professional Preparatory Study. — On 
the other hand, if the time set be too long and be 
made to continue for a considerable period after 
the student has determined upon his life work, 
it must necessarily encroach upon the time that 
rightfully belongs to professional preparatory 
study, and in the end result not less injuriously 
than a course with too narrow limits. The pre- 
vailing tendency in the courses offered by educa- 
tional institutions, corresponding to leading 



THE LEADING STAGE 

study, is to make them entirely too extensive : 
witness the scientific, philosophical, and other op- 
tional courses properly secondary work — in col- 
lege curricula. 

And further, the ultra-conservative classical 
college course, chiefly of days gone by, but still 
clung to by a few leading institutions, ignores en- 
tirely the great truth that the student long before, 
in his secondary school work, has developed an 
aptitude for a particular line of study. The aim 
is not to cultivate any particular tastes or 
aptitudes, but to furnish a broad and general 
training. It appears to be the opinion of these 
institutions that the period of general foundation 
study should extend to the Junior year in college. 

* " The required studies are regarded as 
fundamental and essential in a liberal educa- 
tion and therefore are not left to the student's 

option Most of the studies of 

the Freshman year are required. In the 
Sophomore year the studies are substantially 
all required." 

** " The kind and amount of study in these 

two years (Freshman and Sophomore) are 

* Catalogue, Princeton University, 1897-98, p. 36. 
** Yale College Catalogue, 1897-98, p. 24. 
160 



CONDITIONS DETERMINING 

believed to be such as are essential for laying 
the foundation of a liberal education, what- 
ever the department or profession that may 
be pursued in after life; and no more than 
this is needed to give the student a proper 
basis of knowledge and discipline for the study 
of the elective courses which follow, and that 
knowledge of himself and of the subjects be- 
fore him, which is needed for a judicious 
choice." 

A man may be made too broad as well as too 
narrow. If nature did not adjust the width of 
rivers to the quantity of water in them, their cur- 
rents would cease and they would become stag- 
nant and practically useless. It is difficult for 
many" to realize that this fundamental truth of 
nature is paralleled in human lives, but it is even 
more forcibly true than in nature. A human life 
developing with no clearly defined bounds, or 
with bounds ill-adjusted to its soul-contents, can 
not reasonably be expected to result in a full, 
clear-cut character with a strong current of activ- 
ity. Fullness of life demands that the process of 
education correspond definitely to the capacity of 
the individual student's soul-energies. 
i6i 



THE LEADING STAGE 

As Conditioned by Normal Period of Entire Student 
Life.— If, then, we undertake to set even an ap- 
proximate limit for the leading study period, and 
it is believed that such approximation is practi- 
cable, we can not do this simply by abstract, the- 
oretical reasoning on how much ought to consti- 
tute such a course, but we must gather our data 
from actual observation of the average time re- 
quired from the normal close of general founda- 
tion study until the student, by the laws of his 
own development, is prepared to take up profes- 
sional preparatory study. It is believed that two 
years of solid work, of a grade equivalent to the 
last two years of our standard high schools will 
generally be found sufficient when supplemented 
with the correlative training suggested in the lat- 
ter part of this chapter. The quantity should not 
be much less than this, for the studies of the pro- 
fessional preparatory course require a mind some- 
what disciplined to sustained and concentrated 
efforts — such a discipline as can not well be ob- 
tained by less work than the amount stated, even 
though the student may have made his decision 
for life work some considerable time previously. 
To' make satisfactory progress in the professional 



162 



CONDITIONS DETERMINING 

preparatory studies requires also a comprehen- 
siveness of mental grasp and somewhat of a ma- 
turity of experience in mental work, two essen- 
tials that are not ordinarily attained before the 
student has finished a good secondary school 
course or its equivalent. Nor should there be 
much more than two years' work in this course, 
provided that it has accomplished its main pur- 
pose within this time; for the later demands of 
the professional preparatory and professional 
courses will in themselves take as much of the 
student's life as he can profitably spend in study. 
There is no room, and no necessity, for extra 
zvork in any part of the student's entire career. 
When each stage has attained the chief ends for 
which it exists, its zvork is done and the next 
stage ought to be taken up at once. This bare 
statement may seem simple enough and true 
enough; but it is a much more difficult matter to 
secure its recognition in practice. The most 
effective means for keeping the leading study 
period within its proper limits is to keep con- 
stantly in mind the normal period of the entire 
student life, and then to try to adjust the work 
of leading study to this stage of student life so 

163 



THE LEADING STAGE 

naturally and so closely that the growth of char- 
acter will be neither forced nor delayed, but 
drawn out naturally and fully into a clearly de- 
fined professional attitude. 

Principles of Progress.— A pertinent question 
has been asked here — how far should the age 
of the student determine the character of his 
studies, especially where his work previously has 
been irregular? To this it can only be answered 
that the extent to which the age of the student 
should determine the character of his studies or 
fix their limits is a delicate matter for settlement. 
Under normal conditions where the student has 
attended good schools continuously, and where 
the germs of individuality are strong, general 
foundation study under our present system may 
usually, as before pointed out, be completed by 
the age of sixteen and leading study approxi- 
mately by the age of eighteen. As also before 
pointed out, by beginning secondary education 
with the seventh grade, leading study may be 
begun at the age of fourteen and finished approx- 
imately at the age of sixteen. But with the stu- 
dent whose opportunities for schooling have been 
only occasional, the question of age can not be a 

164 



PRINCIPLES OF PROGRESS 

matter of any considerable importance. This 
applies equally well to professional preparatory 
and professional study. The questions also arise, 
what if a student shows no particular aptitude for 
any particular study or group of studies when he 
has completed the normal amount of work re- 
quired for a general foundation, or even after 
further study; or, if having pursued a normal 
course of leading study, he is unable to decide 
upon his future profession? In all such cases 
there need by no confusion in procedure. Com- 
mon prudence will dictate that the student should 
pursue general foundation study until he is qual- 
ified by his own character development to take 
up the leading study course, whether this be de- 
termined at the normal period or deferred until 
the close of a full college course or its equivalent. 
The same principles of progress regulate the 
length of each great stage of study and deter- 
mine the passage of the student to the next stage. 
On the other hand, it does not necessarily fol- 
low, if the student develops a liking for a certain 
group of studies before the normal period of gen- 
eral foundation study is drawn to a close, or if 
he is led to choose a profession before the nor- 

165 



THE LEADING STAGE 

mal quantity of leading study work is finished, 
that he should in either case quit that stage then 
and pass to the next. It is believed that the quan- 
tity of material contained in the normal period 
as indicated for each course is the minimum re- 
quirement for thorough, high-grade work in 
building a broad and substantial basis for the suc- 
ceeding courses. Yet through all the require- 
ments of the entire student life, completeness of 
results and not mere formality of method must 
he the criterion of progress. 

Character of Material.- — The character of the 
material for leading study should be, as stated 
before, the same as for general foundation study, 
being simply a continuation of the latter with 
more time given to those studies in which most 
interest is taken by the student. No attempt will 
be made to outline a complete course of study for 
these two stages, for there is no virtue in drafting 
iron-clad rules on matters of detail. But suffice 
it to say generally that they should include under 
Historical material, mythology, folk-stories, bi- 
ographies of great men and great women with 
special emphasis upon those of America, United 
States history, civil government, general history 

1 66 



CHARACTER OF MATERIAL 

(or Grecian and Roman history), English his- 
tory, and French history, as well as the simpler 
masterpieces of literature of a biographical or his- 
torical nature; under Scientific material, physi- 
ology with special reference to the science of 
health, geography — including physical geog- 
raphy — botany, zoology, physics, and chemistry. 
Under Mathematical material, arithmetic, book- 
keeping, algebra, geometry, and manual training; 
under Language material, language, composition, 
literature in its language aspect as the expression 
of great thoughts and emotions and phases of life, 
grammar with much less emphasis upon abstract 
definitions than is usually given them, one or more 
foreign languages — four years' work in Latin 
preferred, or two years each of French and Ger- 
man, but both should not be begun the same year ; 
under Esthetic material, vocal music, drawing, 
and color should be carried on as minor studies 
continuously, and the aesthetic phases of litera- 
ture be given due emphasis. 

This is only a suggestive outline. There are, 
doubtless, numerous other arrangements of 
studies along the same general lines which are 
quite as valuable. The only object in giving it 

167 



THE LEADING STAGE 

is to point out the main paths along- which the 
student's work lies at this period of his progress. 
The details can be wrought out in correspondence 
with the relative values and the correlation of 
studies. It may be found advisable to add cer- 
tain studies to the group — as given above — in 
which the student is specializing; for instance, if 
it be the scientific group, geology, or if the math- 
ematical, astronomy and trigonometry may be 
added, and, if desirable, certain of the subjects 
mentioned above omitted from the other groups; 
and so for each group on which the leading study 
work may be based. The course as given above 
is outlined to cover two years of leading study. 
In those cases where more is necessary the va- 
rious groups may be expanded to suit the indi- 
vidual demands. 

Critical Importance of This Stage. — So, the 
central aim of this stage of study is to fit the stu- 
dent to make a rational choice of his future pro- 
fession. Whatever means, therefore, can assist 
in securing this end are essential here. Every ed- 
ucational agency that can throw light upon this 
critical phase of character-building ought to be 
focused on this period. There is an urgent de- 

i68 



IGNORED BY EDUCATORS 

mand for a high degree of directive power, 
whether it be from instructor or adviser or 
whether it be self-directive. Indeed, if there is 
any one period of student Hfe more important 
than the rest, a period calHng for greater knowl- 
edge of human nature and a more masterly grasp 
of human affairs than is ordinarily found on the 
part of those who seek to exercise a determining 
influence upon the lives of our youth, it is this 
stage in which the soul-energies of the student 
are to be started in their particular life-channels 
of world activity. There is no more vital problem 
in the whole range of education than the one in- 
volved here. 

Problem Long Ignored by Educators, — 

And -yet, judging from past and current educa- 
tional methods, one might reasonably suppose 
that the problem of choosing a profession is a 
matter of comparative insignificance, or at most 
a problem with which secondary education is 
not closely concerned. Doubtless, most educa- 
tors will object to these interpretations of their 
views, but this is simply judging their beliefs by 
their practices, which is the ordinary method of 
judging men's notions — and an entirely fair one, 

169 



THE LEADING STAGE 

even though it may not always be technically cor- 
rect. It matters little what one believes unless 
he makes his belief the motive power of his prac- 
tice. 

Accordingly, if we seek in educational prac- 
tices for clear, rational guidance in this matter of 
choosing a profession, we shall seek long and seek 
in vain, for it is not to be found there. Strange 
as it may seem and strange as it really is, this 
vital feature of education has been practically ig- 
nored in the mad rush for knowledge and disci- 
pline and scholastic honors. No contention need 
be made against these particular aims in educa- 
tion ; they are highly valuable when kept within 
their proper limits. It is only when they are 
exalted to become in themselves the chief aim, 
that they work injury. And in unnaturally ex- 
alted positions they are now working great in- 
jury to education. Again, it becomes necessary 
to repeat what has often been said before, that 
the student himself is the central object of educa- 
tion, that all aims must be the logical outcome 
of his natural powers, and all methods in har- 
mony with his normal way of unfoldment. If 
his professional spirit will normally unfold itself 



170 



IGNORED BY EDUCATORS 

in a period of study approximating two years of 
work from the normal close of general founda- 
tion study, then it is altogether wrong to keep 
him in leading study work for several years 
longer, no matter how desirous the knowledge or 
the discipline or how alluring the scholastic 
plums. The highest forms of life-building can 
never be accomplished except by conforming 
closely to the stage developments of life-principles 
in the student. 

* " Another important function of the public 
school in a democracy is the discovery and de- 
velopment of the gift or capacity of each indi- 
vidual child. This discovery should be made 
at the earliest practicable age, and, once made, 
should always influence, and sometimes deter- 
mine the education of the individual. It is for 
the interest of society to make the most of 
every useful gift or faculty which any mem- 
ber may fortunately possess To 

make the most of any individual's peculiar 
power, it is important to discover it early, 
and then train it continuously and assiduous- 
ly The perception or discovery 

* Pres. Chas. W, Eliot, Address before Brooklyn Insti- 
tute, October, 1897. 

171 



. THE LEADING STAGE 

of the individual gift or capacity would often 
be effected in the elementary school, but more 
generally in the secondary ; and the making 
of these discoveries should be held one of the 
most important parts of the teacher's work." 

Profession-Study. — Practical instruction in 
profession-study has hitherto occupied a remark- 
ably insignificant place in our educational curric- 
ula. About all the information that most stu- 
dents have gained in regard to choosing a life 
work has been what they have gathered in the 
nooks and by-paths of their career, from random 
conversations with friends and chance acquaint- 
ances or from the advice or desires of parents 
or teachers. A rather peculiar way of treating 
so great an educational problem, one would 
think! What wonder, then, that there are so 
many mis-fits in occupations ! What wonder that 
so many young people are not able to make a 
rational choice of a profession within the nor- 
mal period ! If all youth were gifted with germs 
of individuality strong enough to keep them- 
selves in their natural life-channels regardless of 
outside influences, there would be little need for 



172 



PROFESSION-STUDY 

supervision in this stage of development. But 
as a simple matter of fact they are not, nor are 
the most of them, as every keen observer of hu- 
man nature well knows. Even when the aver- 
age student eventually determines his future life 
work he has consumed a great deal of unneces- 
sary time, or of time that would have been un- 
necessary under proper gtiidance. 

Now, it is not believed that the growth of 
the professional spirit in the student can be ar- 
bitrarily measured by metes and bounds in 
length of time. But what is insisted on is this : 
That a systematic course of instruction on the 
art of choosing a profession be made a definite 
part of the leading study course. So far as in- 
formation is at hand, there is now no suitable 
text-book for this purpose. Until one shall ap- 
pear — and it is hoped that the crying need may 
spur some experienced educator with a masterly 
knowledge of student life to furnish a work that 
will fill the void — we must gather the desired in- 
formation from whatever sources will avail. 
Perhaps, by stating the outline features of what, 
in our opinion, this instruction should include, 
the means will suggest themselves by which the 



173 



THE LEADING STAGE 

teacher or the student may be able to carry on 
this work for himself by a systematic course of 
reading and by extensive personal consultations 
with persons of practical and successful experi- 
ence. But it must eventually become an essential 
part of the regular school work. 

As Regular Study.— This series of investigations 
intended to furnish the student in this stage with 
practical insight into the various phases of pro- 
fessional activity in order that he may, at the 
proper time, make his selection of a profession 
with the whole field clearly before him, demands 
profound consideration and deserves the dignity 
of a regular study in this leading study course. 
In scope it should be comprehensive enough to 
include a consideration of all professions of any 
consequence, whether known by the name of 
profession, trade, calling, or what not. There 
can be no complete data from which to form a 
conclusive decision, unless every worthy life- 
work is given a fair and impartial opportunity 
to have its status presented and its fitness to the 
peculiar powers of the individual student com- 
pared with that of other professions. In char- 
acter it should be scientific. When it is said that 



174 



PROFESSION-STUDY 

the character of this practical information should 
be scientific, it is meant that professional life 
should be treated impartially and thoroughly, 
dwelling on those points only which are of vital 
interest to the student at this time. It is of prime 
importance that the consideration be entirely im- 
partial. So natural and so common is it for 
parents and friends to preconceive a particular 
professional career for the young lives under 
their care and then to use all their influence to 
bring about the consummation of these precon- 
ceptions, that one feels called upon to remonstrate 
in no gentle terms. What the student is seeking 
for is disinterested information, not biased advice 
or unreasoning entreaties. This information 
shouH also be thorough ; not, of course, in de- 
tail, but in all salient points and to such an ex- 
tent as to present in clear light the opportunities, 
the rewards, and the demands of each profes- 
sion. In time, it should cover a considerable pe- 
riod, perhaps as a minor study during the whole 
of the leading study course. By thus making the 
period for gathering information somewhat pro- 
longed we may guard against the impulsive de- 
cisions made through caprice or through the 

175 



THE LEADING STAGE 

temporary overshadowing power of some partic- 
ular professional influence. Experience teaches 
that to secure permanent and satisfactory results 
a course of instruction must be somewhat pro- 
longed and continuous. It will not suffice to 
do spasmodic work — a little now and then, 
and npthing between times. This profession- 
study should be assigned as regular work, just 
the same as the regular studies of this stage. 

Elementary Sociology the Basis of Profession- 
Study. — To secure the most satisfactory results, 
this profession-study must be based upon a gen- 
eral acquaintance with elementary sociology. 
The student should be made familiar with the 
elementary facts concerning the origin, growth, 
and present conditions of social life in all its 
chief phases. Only in this way and upon this 
basis can he grasp fully the organic nature of 
society in its various fields and be prepared to 
comprehend the complete meaning of a life work. 
And only upon such a basis can he grasp fully 
the conditions and statuses of the different forms 
of professional activity. 

Objection has been raised on numerous occa- 
sions to the introduction of sociology into secon- 

176 



PROFESSION-STUDY 

dary schools, on the ground that it is too diffi- 
cult a study. But these objections have come 
chiefly, on the one hand, from those unfamiliar 
with sociological study, and, on the other hand, 
from those who are concerned with it from the 
collegiate or university standpoint. The diffi- 
culty of the subject depends altogether upon the 
way in which the material is organized and pre- 
sented. For secondary students the character of 
such study will necessarily be general and ele- 
mentary, and, besides, that is exactly what is 
most desirable for the end in view. 

There can be no question as to the great value 
of elementary sociological study for secondary 
students. For disciplinary training, in the broad 
sense; it has no superior. Its composite char- 
acter affords a varied culture. The study of na- 
ture's laws in relation to human society requires 
the exactness and prolonged attention of mathe- 
matical and language study. The study of the 
influence of physical conditions upon the devel- 
opment of social life involves all that is involved 
in scientific training. While the study of men in 
their various relations to each other, socially, re- 
ligiously, politically, industrially, and otherwise, 

177 



THE LEADING STAGE 

gives even more effectively the broad, balanced, 
and humanized discipline which the study of his- 
tory, in its inclusive sense, affords. The practical, 
content value of elementary sociological study 
during this particular period of leading study, 
when the student is struggling to find his soci- 
ological position, is inestimable, for it is directly 
preliminary to the knowledge which he most 
needs at this critical stage of his development. 
Nor is there any inherent reason why the study 
of elementary sociology should present unusual 
difficulty to third-year students in our secondary 
schools, where the previous work in geography 
and history has been properly done ; for these two 
studies are the foundations of sociological study, 
and the step from them to elementary sociology 
is, or ought to be, easy and natural. 

Character of Elementary Sociological Study. — The 
materials of this elementary sociological study 
should be arranged with the following aims up- 
permost : 

(a) To afford a simple and practical, yet clear 
and comprehensive, exposition of the origin, 
structure, growth, and present conditions of so- 
cial life in its various phases, particularly in our 
own country. 

178 



PROFESSION-STUDY 

(b) To give, in general outline, the rise and 
growth of all the leading kinds of present-day 
professional activities. 

(c) To point out clearly the function of a def- 
inite life work for the individual. 

(d) To make plain the related social groups by 
which semi-professional social service becomes 
a personal obligation. 

(e) To mark out the sociological function of 
general culture activities. 

Biographical Study, Character of.— This might, 
with advantage, be followed by a study of se- 
lected biographies illustrating the three-fold 
function of a successful life worker — his profes- 
sional, semi-professional, and general culture ac- 
tivities. 

Quantity of Such Work.- These sociological and 
biographical studies may profitably occupy the 
position of a regular minor study for the whole 
of the third year of the secondary schools. The 
peculiar nature of the purpose to be accomplished 
demands that they be prolonged throughout the 
year, rather than concentrated in a short period. 

Profession-Study Proper, Character of. — Having 
this elementary sociological and biographical 

179 



THE LEADING STAGE 

foundation, the student is prepared to take up for 
the next year profession-study proper. The 
aims should be: 

(a) To give a clear, comprehensive, and im- 
partial view of every important field of life work 
in its present status in this country. 

(b) To afford this by showing the require- 
ments, the practical duties, and the rewards in 
each field. 

(c) To encourage much supplementary read- 
ing, consultations with persons of successful ex- 
perience, and practical investigations, on the part 
of the student. 

Reasonableness of Profession-Study. — Example.— 

In general, the preeminent reasonableness of 
profession-study ought to be sufficient to give it 
an honorable place in the secondary school cur- 
riculum. In particular, no better illustration is 
needed of the necessity for careful, thorough, and 
comprehensive exposition of present-day profes- 
sional conditions than is afforded in the field of 
law. The youth who dreams of winning dis- 
tinction at the bar in the way that his father and 
grandfather laid their foundations and achieved 
success, is very likely to experience a revolution- 
ise 



PROFESSION-STUDY 

ary awakening when he gets an insight into the 
present status of the legal profession in this coun- 
try. The old school lawyer laid his foundations in 
mathematics and the languages. The classical 
courses in secondary school and college, with con- 
siderable history, were fairly well adapted to the 
nature of the work that his later professional du- 
ties demanded. 

The present-day lawyer finds the field radically 
changed. The immense impetus toward peace- 
ful arbitration of disputes, the simplification of 
real estate matters through legislative enact- 
ments, the rise of business corporations doing 
special phases of legal work, and the growth of 
gigantic companies requiring legal counsellors 
with • marked business capacity, all combine to 
demand of the future lawyer qualifications widely 
different from what constituted the equipment of 
the successful lawyer in the past. It is true that 
the lawyer with business capacity has always 
been at an advantage over his co-workers not so 
equipped ; and it is also true that to a certain ex- 
tent the better class of old school lawyers will 
always find a clientage. But no one familiar 
with the recent developments in industry and 

i8i 



The leading stage 

commerce can fail to see the resulting influence 
upon the legal profession. These mighty socio- 
logical changes, of which we are only at the 
dawn, demand imperatively the attention of our 
youth whose professional interests are beginning 
to make themselves manifest. 

What has been said of the legal profession 
may be repeated to greater or less degree of the 
other fields of life work. With some, the modi- 
fications have not been so radical; with others, 
fully as much so, or more — for instance, elec- 
trical engineering. But whatever the likelihood 
of stability or of change in the status of the dif- 
ferent professions, there is only one way by which 
the student is likely to obtain a clear, balanced, 
and satisfactory knowledge of what the world 
is offering him for a life work, and that one 
way is by systematic courses of profession-study 
under the skilled supervision of thoroughly 
equipped teachers. 



182 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE PROFESSIONAL PREPARATORY STAGE 

Position in Complete Scheme of Study. — 
Let it be taken for granted that the two preced- 
ing stages have accomplished their purpose, and 
that the student is now ready to enter upon prep- 
aration for the profession of his choice. Two 
great questions at once present themselves: 
What kind of preparation should this be, and, 
how much should it include? In answer to the 
first " question, while the specific kinds of mate- 
rial for the different professions will vary, there 
are certain underlying principles which remain 
the same for all. Full preparation for profes- 
sional life involves an intellectual and technical 
mastery of the fundamental principles of that 
particular profession for which we are studying. 
But we must go farther back and ask what is 
included in the intellectual and technical mastery 
of these fundamental professional principles. It 

183 



THE PREPARATORY STAGE 

involves the clear understanding of these princi- 
ples and the ability to put this knowledge to ef- 
fective use, but it involves more than this. Up 
to this stage of his education the work of the 
student has been general, with some emphasis, it 
is true, upon his favored studies in the last two 
years of his work. He has, however, as yet made 
no conscious steps directly toward a professional 
upbuilding, for the simple reason that he has not 
until just now come into a realization of his pro- 
fessional character. And so to start him at once 
upon the mastery of strictly technical professional 
studies is taking a great leap for which he is not 
prepared. The technical courses required for the 
leading professions are naturally composed of 
graduate studies, and it is idle to expect that one 
will get the full worth of these courses unless he 
brings to bear on them a mind disciplined to 
hard work and well equipped in those great de- 
partments of studies which are specially involved. 
Beyond the limits of the first tzvo stages of study, 
both in range and in maturity, and in character 
naturally precedent to the strictly technical 
branches, lies, for each profession, a group of 
studies the mastery of which is absolutely essen- 

184 



PROFESSIONAL PREPARATORY STUDY 

tial to dcptJi and breadth of professional study. 
To furnish this equipment is the chief function of 
the professional preparatory stage. 

Three-fold Object. — The object of the pro- 
fessional preparatory stage is three- fold : First, 
to furnish a thorough preparation for the suc- 
cessful prosecution of professional study; sec- 
ondly, to furnish an acquaintance with those 
semi-professional phases of activity into which 
one's relations will most likely lead him when he 
has come into the realities of his life work. The 
remaining object of study in this stage, that of 
cultivation in all-round manhood and woman- 
hood, is provided for in that part of the general 
culture course running parallel to the professional 
preparatory course and, while only complemen- 
tary, is of great significance. 

Professional Preparatory Study.— As a prep- 
aration for professional study, the preparatory 
course has three purposes. The student, at the 
close of the leading study course, is not suffi- 
ciently prepared either in mental discipline, in 
the necessary scholarly equipments for techni- 
cal investigation, or in comprehensiveness of 
vision, to take up with profit the abstruse and 

185 



THE PREPARATORY STAGE 

highly specialized studies of the professional 
course. 

Discipline.— In the first place, the professional 
student needs a disciplined mind, a mind trained 
to hard and systematic work and capable of pro- 
longed concentration. Such discipline comes only 
from years of scholarly study and to a mind that 
has to some extent reached a mature condition. 
The average student who has completed the lead- 
ing study course is not qualified either in disci- 
pline or in maturity to enter upon professional 
study. Now and then a genius overleaps these 
bounds without serious difficulty, but we ordi- 
nary mortals can not do it. The demand for in- 
tensity and continuity of concentrated effort will 
be found to vary somewhat in the different pro- 
fessional courses, as was pointed out in a pre- 
vious chapter. The more comprehensive and in- 
tricate the studies of a professional course, the 
greater must be the discipline and the maturity 
of the mind that grapples successfully with them. 
This discipline is usually furnished best by the 
study of those branches elementary and correla- 
tive to the professional course. Thus the law 
student will find it impossible to pick out the 

1 86 



PROFESSIONAL PREPARATORY STUDY 

fundamental principles from the great body of 
the common law, arranging them in an orderly 
classification and tracing their development from 
early conditions down to their present state, un- 
less he has a considerable ability in discriminative 
observation, in reasoning from numerous and 
ofttimes conflicting causes, and in practical judg- 
ment; such discipline as is gained from extended 
and thorough study in history and its allied sub- 
jects. No sensible student of engineering would 
expect to grasp the advanced mechanical and elec- 
trical work of his course, unless he had schooled 
his mind in the methods underlying the study of 
mathematics and physics. Nor could the student 
in medicine hope to make much progress without 
the discipline resulting from somewhat of chemi- 
cal and biological investigations. And so with 
other students in their respective courses. 

Tools of Study.— Secondly, there are certain for- 
mal studies — so-called — varying with different 
classes of professions; studies with which one 
must be acquainted, and which one must be able 
to use as tools of professional craft. A number 
of these, such as logic, advanced rhetoric, and, in 
some instances, the languages, lie beyond the first 

187 



THE PREPARATORY STAGE 

two courses, and must be supplied by the profes- 
sional preparatory course. Not that all of them 
need be included in any one course, but some of 
them will be found necessary. Logic and rhet- 
oric are especially valuable for the " intellec- 
tual " professions ; while the languages are valua- 
ble for all professions — Latin, because of the 
technical terms in common use, and because a 
knowledge of it makes mastery of our own lan- 
guage easier, since a considerable part of ours is 
derived from the Latin — French and German, 
because much of the best modern thought is in 
these languages, and has never been translated. 
So Greek and Hebrew are indispensable to the 
prospective theological student, since Greek is the 
original language of the New Testament, and 
Hebrew chiefly that of the Old Testament. 

Comprehensive Preparatory Knowledge. — Thirdly, 
it is necessary that the student shall take suffi- 
cient work in those advanced studies directly cor- 
related with and naturally precedent to his pro- 
fessional course to give reasonable assurance 
that he will enter upon his professional studies 
with a philosophic grasp of his profession in its 
comprehensive relations, and with such familiar- 



PROFESSIONAL PREPARATORY STUDY 

ity with closely allied subjects as will insure 
speedy and substantial progress. This can not 
be done in the previous stages, and it remains for 
this course to fulfill such function. The higher 
and broader the view that we hold of profes- 
sionalism in its sociological function of bettering 
humanity, which is its chief function, the more 
rational will be the professional preparatory cur- 
riculum. It is cause for profound regret that 
professionalism is so frequently held, both in the 
professional schools and out of them, as an ave- 
nue for mere personal advancement. By this it 
is not meant to imply that our better class of 
professional schools deliberately inculcate the 
doctrine of selfishness. Not at all. But there is 
a manifest lack of emphasis upon the beneficent 
social function which only a well-developed pro- 
fessional worker can fulfill. Professionalism that 
provides only " for me and my wife and my son 
John and his wife " may succeed financially, and 
possibly in a certain kind of reputation ; but it 
will be too thoroughly devitalized ever to attain 
to the loftier and richer planes of life. There is 
no better way by which education can dissipate 
this abnormally utilitarian conception of profes- 

189 



THE PREPARATORY STAGE 

sionalism than by providing such a course of 
professional preparatory training as shall form a 
natural connecting link between the previous 
stages and the professional course, keeping the 
central aim for organic culture continuously dom- 
inant. And this, by so applying the elementary 
principles of educational philosophy in the con- 
struction of the professional preparatory curric- 
ulum that the student may grasp the notion of 
professionalism in the full significance of its 
proper function. The more progressive of the 
colleges are recognizing this in a less consistent 
way, by permitting the latter part of the college 
course to be made introductory to the profes- 
sional course, especially in law and medicine. 

Principles Governing Professional Prepara- 
tory Courses. — It would not be practicable to 
attempt an exhaustive list of the correlative stud- 
ies which should form a chief part of this prepar- 
atory course. Hard and fast lines in the details 
of study are not wise, since the fields of educa- 
tional material are being constantly enriched and 
new fields added. The chief concern, in this con- 
nection, is for our educators to realize that there 
is a group of advanced studies lying naturally 

190 



PRINCIPLES GOVERNING COURSES 

between leading study and professional study, and 
that the student must master this group before 
he is prepared for high-grade zvorh in his pro- 
fessional course. What these studies are for each 
profession may be determined by a careful inves- 
tigation, ( I ) of the requirements for the suc- 
cessful prosecution of that particular profession 
in its highest and broadest scope; (2) of the cor- 
relation and sequence of studies, with special ref- 
erence to this professional equipment; (3) of the 
student's ability tO' master knowledge at this par- 
ticular stage of his development. To gather this 
information will require extensive observation 
and patient effort. 

Examples. — It will suffice our purpose here to 
mention a few of the most important subjects in- 
troductory to several of the prominent profes- 
sions, not including those subjects previously, 
mentioned as tools of professional study, nor the 
semi-professional studies to be suggested later. 
For the prospective law student, Political and 
Constitutional History of England and of the 
United States, English Literature and oratori- 
cal work, Ethics, Modern Business Methods, So- 
ciology, and Political Science will be found es- 

191 



THE PREPARATORY STAGE 

pecially helpful; for the prospective journalistic 
student, much the same as for the law student, 
with more emphasis upon Finance, Sociology, 
and the Industrial problems; for the prospective 
medical student, advanced courses in Physics, 
General Biology, Chemistry, Zoology, and Bot- 
any; for the prospective theological student, An- 
cient and Mediaeval and Modern History, Psy- 
chology, Ethics, Philosophy, Pedagogy, English 
Literature and oratorical work, and Sociology; 
for the prospective pedagogical student, Physi- 
ology, Psychology, Pedagogy, Philosophy, Eth- 
ics, Sociology, and somewhat of advanced work 
in the subjects which he intends to teach; for 
the prospective business student, Financial and 
Industrial History, Industrial problems. Mu- 
nicipal Government, Sociology, Physics, Chem- 
istry, and Commercial Geography; for the pros- 
pective student in Agriculture, somewhat of ad- 
vanced work in Physics, Chemistry, Botany, and 
Zoology, Financial and Industrial History, So- 
ciology, Commercial Geography, and Meteor- 
ology. 

The above outlines are intended to be sugges- 
tive only, not exhaustive. The quantity of work 



192 



SEMI-PROFESSIONAL STUDY 

must, to a reasonable extent, correspond to the 
natural ability of the student and his previous 
training. But his work should be along the lines 
indicated. The reasons for assigning each of the 
various branches a place are not adduced here 
because it is believed that the relation of each 
branch to a broad and lofty professionalism is 
easily distinguishable by anybody who possesses 
even a moderate capacity for comprehending the 
organic nature of the educational process. 

Semi-Professional Study.— With regard to 
the second phase of professional preparatory 
study, that of fitting one for the semi-professional 
phases of life into which his professional position 
will most likely lead him, outside of his strictly 
professional sphere, the student should be given 
as thorough an understanding of these phases as 
is possible in the time, or quantity of work, al- 
lotted to this course. 

Principles Applied.— As to what should constitute 
this part of the course, there is wide latitude for 
choice, dependent upon the social classes and in- 
stitutions with which each particular profession 
comes mostly into contact. For instance, the 
students of law and of journalism ought to be- 

193 



THE PREPARATORY STAGE 

come familiar with the principles and practical 
workings of political and municipal governments, 
with economics, and with the general structure of 
society and the various efforts toward social bet- 
terment. And this stands as an essential part of 
their equipment, not because of the opportunity it 
may offer for self-advancement, but because their 
professional positions will preeminently fit them 
for action along such lines; and because, in such 
case, they owe it as a duty to their fellow-men to 
serve the public in whatever capacity their con- 
ditions will permit. So, in different spheres, with 
the minister, the teacher, the physician, the 
farmer, the business man, the musician, the engi- 
neer, the architect, and with every professional 
man and woman. 

Compensating Law of Public Service. — Those who 
work along these lines are the truly great. They 
are the ones whose influence is most powerful 
for good, and who are always to be found in the 
forefront of every movement that is for the up- 
lifting of their fellow-men. And it pays — this 
interest in the welfare of others — better than 
anything else in the world ; for there is a beauti- 
ful and invariable social law of compensation 



194 



SEMI-PROFESSIONAL STUDY 

which declares that Whatsoever ye give, that 
shall ye also receive in return. To such charac- 
ters honors come unsought, and they grow in 
greatness and in power so naturally and so quietly 
that they have become arbiters of destiny for 
thousands and tens of thousands almost before 
we are aware of it. We can not live to ourselves 
alone. The measure of our uplift to others will 
be the measure of their uplift to us. This is an 
educational law of fundamental importance, and 
the student can not afford to ignore it. Whose 
are the lives immortal in our country's history? 
Why the grateful tributes that we render to them 
with an universal voice? Whence comes this 
power of theirs to shed their radiant beams along 
our- nation's path of progress, like beacon lights 
eternal and undimmed? From inordinate am- 
bition? No. From power of personal aggran- 
dizement? No. From shrewd duplicity and 
demagogic tactics? No. Can you not see the 
" sailor of Genoa " confronting the whole hostile 
royalty and the ecclesiastical authority of Europe 
and then venturing upon the terrors of an un- 
known ocean for the sake of a great truth ? Will 
you be likely to forget how Smith and Standish 

195 



THE PREPARATORY STAGE 

and Williams and Penn and Baltimore and Ogle- 
thorpe left homes and wealth and civilization, 
and, with no other guaranty than their faith in 
a ruling Providence, led their brave bands into 
the midst of a vast wilderness filled with wild 
beasts and savage foes and exposed to all the 
inclemencies of a rigorous climate, for the sake 
of living according to the dictates of conscience? 
Do you not recall that majestic scene of a later 
day, when Washington, with his colleagues, Han- 
cock, Henry, Jefferson, Franklin, and the Ad- 
amses took our young nation from the arms of 
an angry parent and established her in a home 
that is at once the admiration and the wonder 
of the world, though they well knew that the 
failure of their efforts would mean death in ig- 
nominy upon the scaffold? Has not your heart 
thrilled as you have witnessed the masterly Ham- 
ilton building up our national credit on a founda- 
tion so broad and so firm that it has never been 
shaken ; or the iron-willed Jackson, single-handed, 
holding at bay the vicious forces of Nullification ; 
or those forensic giants, Webster and Clay, in 
the furious battles of the Senate, bearing aloft 
the emblems of our national integrity; or the 

196 



PRINCIPLES DETERMINING LENGTH 

indomitable Grant " fighting it out along this line, 
if it takes all summer " ; or the human-hearted 
Lincoln, whose capacious soul held no room for 
private vindictiveness, no room for sectional ani- 
mosity : each bending all his mighty energies for 
the uplifting of our common country, and dis- 
daining whatever of toil and of personal sacrifice 
his arduous duties involved? So, multitudes of 
others, like Agassiz in science, Childs in business, 
Whittier in letters, and Frances Willard in tem- 
perance, have given their hearts to their fellow- 
men and have gained undying honor in reward. 

Principles Determining Length of Stage. 

— It may be well to consider for a moment the 
factors that determine the length of the profes- 
sional preparatory course. They have been no- 
ticed before — the psychological development of 
the student, his sociological environments, and 
the nature of his particular profession. 

Psychological Development of the Student. — Every 
experienced educator has discovered, and every 
advanced student knows, that up to a certain 
point in our student life we enjoy studying for 
the mere sake of the knowledge gained, but that 
beyond this point the healthy, vigorous student 



197 



THE PREPARATORY STAGE 

wants to study toward some end definitely related 
to the natural bent of his activities. How far 
this professional instinct ought to be encouraged 
and how far it ought to be held in check in the 
educational process, is a matter for judicious ex- 
perience to decide. Some students develop rap- 
idly, others slowly; but for the average student 
experience seems to dictate that about three years 
of elementary and correlative work is essential 
as preparatory to broad and solid professional 
study. True, the regular college course is still a 
four years' course, but a careful examination and 
comparison of the courses of our leading colleges 
will show that the last three years of the courses 
are, substantially, professional preparatory 
courses. And, as a rule, this tendency to make 
the college a preparatory school for professional 
study will be found to be most clearly defined 
among the colleges of highest standing. Only 
a few years ago, the average college was sup- 
posed to exist simply for the purpose of giving 
its students a " liberal " education, which meant 
simply a general training for nothing in partic- 
ular. Gradually, educators began to realize that 
the professional interests of the student are usu- 

198 



PRINCIPLES DETERMINING LENGTH 

ally fairly well developed when he enters college 
and that these professional interests ought to re- 
ceive marked attention throughout the college 
course. At first, the senior year was given over 
to such preparatory work; then the last two 
years; and later, the last three years of the col- 
lege course — among many of our best and most 
progressive institutions. 

Of this class of colleges the Industrial College, 
of the University of Nebraska, may be taken as a 
typical example : 

* " All the courses in the first year of resi- 
dence are prescribed, and form the common 
bases of both the general and the special 
groups offered. 

" At the end of the first year of residence 
the student may continue his work in either 
of the general groups, or he may elect any 
one of the special groups. The studies in the 
general groups are arranged to meet the 
requirements of students whose primary object 
is a broad and general education. 

" The various lines of study in the special 
groups are planned and coordinated to enable 

* Bulletin, University of Nebraska, May, 1902. 
199 



THE PREPARATORY STAGE 

students to direct their work so as to meet 
their individual needs and preferences. In 
these groups the principle of concentration and 
intensive work along a definite line is recog- 
nized." 

But a number of first-class institutions have 
gone further and now permit such preparatory 
work from the beginning of the college course. 
This last seems most in harmony with the best 
recent educational thought and experience. 

* " Students are strongly urged to choose 
their studies with the utmost care, under the 
best advice, and in such manner that their 
studies from first to last may form a rational 
connected whole. It is believed that any plan 
of study, deliberately made and adhered to, 
will be more profitable than studies chosen 
from year to year, without plan, under the 
influence of temporary preferences. 

" It will be seen that students who prefer a 
course like that usually prescribed by American 
colleges may secure it by a corresponding 
choice of studies ; while others, who have de- 
cided tastes, or think it wiser to concentrate 

* Harvard College Announcement, 1897, p. 249. 
200 



PRINCIPLES DETERMINING LENGTH 

their study on a few subjects, obtain every 
facility for doing so. 

" Undergraduates who intend to study en- 
gineering are advised to consult the Dean of 
the Lawrence Scientific School with reference 
to the best courses for them to take in college. 
To those who intend to study Medicine the 
Medical Faculty recommends Natural His- 
tory, Chemistry, Physics, French, and Ger- 
man. To those who intend to study Law the 
Law Faculty recommends Latin, French, 
Themes and Forensics, Elocution, Oral Dis- 
cussion, Rhetoric, Logic, Ethics, Political 
Economy, Constitutional and Legal History 
and the History of Institutions, International 
Law, and Roman Law." 

Sociological Limitations.— And next to the socio- 
logical limitations. There is a widespread feel- 
ing among our ablest educators that the present 
full college course, or its equivalent, as prece- 
dent to a full professional course, is unreasonable 
and in violation of the avowed principles of edu- 
cation. President Eliot has said with reference 
to medical education, and it applies essentially to 
many other professions : 

20 1 



THE PREPARATORY STAGE 

" The average age of admission to Harvard 
College at this moment is fully 19. The stu- 
dent who stays there four years to get his A. B. 
is 23 when he graduates. He then goes to our 
medical school to stay there four years ; so he 
is 27 years of age before he even has his 
medical degree, and we all know that some 
years intervene between that achievement and 
competency to support a family. Now, that 
highly educated young man ought to have been 
married at 25. The remedies for this state of 
things — which is really intolerable and which 
particularly ought not to exist in a country 
so new as ours — are somewhat complex. The 
proper age for a secondary education in our 
country is between the ages of 13 and 18, not 
higher. Then I must frankly say that for 
years I have been in favor of reducing the or- 
dinary term of residence for the degree of 
B. A. to three years, an out and out square 
reduction from four to three years." 

This would allow the student to enter upon his 
professional study at the age of twenty-one. The 
opinion of this eminent college president and edu- 
cational authority is quoted, not for the purpose 

202 



PRINCIPLES DETERMINING LENGTH 

of entering into an abstract discussion of college 
education, but because he, from long years of 
broad experience, emphasizes the fact that socio- 
logical conditions determine that this course of 
preparatory study should comprise not more than 
three years of good solid work not later, as a rule, 
than between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one 
— and under a closely organized system, between 
the ages of sixteen and nineteen. 

Nature of Particular Life Work.— It is believed 
that this will prove wisest for preparation for 
most professions, especially for those of law, 
medicine, the ministry, teaching, journalism, and 
business. Perhaps other professions, like engi- 
neering, architecture, and agriculture, and the 
aesthetic professions of music and art, do not de- 
mand this full preparatory course, or at least will 
not suffer so severely from the lack of it; but even 
here it can do much to empower and enrich the 
student in his work. 

The distinguished head of Columbia Univer- 
sity goes even further in his recommendations 
for the modification of college work: 

* " Those who are to prepare themselves 

* Nicholas M. Butler, in A. M. Review of Reviews, 
November, 1902, p. 590. 

203 



THE PREPARATORY STAGE 

for professorships, and for expert service in 
other ways, will need all of four busy college 
years before entering upon what are called 
post-graduate or research studies. On the 
other hand, those who are to spend from three 
to four years in a professional or technical 
school did not need — in the strict sense of the 
word — four years of college instruction ; al- 
though many of them, no doubt, would profit 
by having it. It is for this class of students 
that I believe a two years' course of college 
instruction to be very desirable. They would 
then spend from five to six years in combined 
college and university residence ; and, in view 
of the rigorous intellectual discipline given by 
the modern instruction in law, medicine, archi- 
tecture, engineering, and the rest, and in view 
also of the undoubted educational value of 
those subjects as now taught, they would get 
from such a course a training of much general 
value, as well as one which bears especially 
upon their chosen profession." 

Some institutions are combining professional 
preparatory study and professional study into 
one course, but the most satisfactory results can 



204 



DOMESTIC SCIENCE 

hardly be obtained in this way. It is largely a 
make-shift to provide for those students who have 
entered upon professional study without suffi- 
cient preparation. Usually it has been found best 
to keep the courses separate. In order to do 
thoroughly high-grade work in the professional 
course, a trained mind, well equipped with the 
tools of scholarship and in those branches bear- 
ing upon the regular work, must be brought into 
service at the beginning of the course. 

Domestic Science.— There is one profession 
of which as yet no mention has been made. Per- 
chance, some will object to its being treated as a 
profession. But, really, in nobility of character 
and in demand for thorough equipment, no other 
life "work stands higher than the profession of 
Domestic Science, in its most inclusive meaning. 
The young women of to-day will be the wives 
and mothers of the next generation ; and the re- 
sponsibilities thus devolving upon them in House- 
keeping, in Cooking, in Dress, in Sanitation, and 
in the supervision of the young lives that shall 
come under their care, require a thorough train- 
ing in all those branches that can throw 
light upon the momentous undertaking. Not 

205 



THE PREPARATORY STAGE 

every wife and mother will be called upon to 
perform all these duties, but every woman ought 
to be able to decide intelligently what is the most 
healthful food and what the most hygienic dress 
for her household, to oversee the sanitary condi- 
tions of the home, and to direct the young lives 
that may come under her charge in paths which 
shall make for fullness and richness of develop- 
ment. That she may accomplish this with a 
marked degree of success, requires in this pre- 
paratory stage a considerable knowledge of Phys- 
ics, Chemistry, Biology, Hygienic Physiology, 
Psychology, Ethics, Education, and Sociology, 
besides a very liberal general culture training. 
The educational equipment for this highest and 
most fitting calling of woman combines the es- 
sential training of the practical scientist with the 
pedagogical training of the professional teacher, 
for she is both — and more. May God speed the 
day when the profession of Domestic Science, 
not in its narrow utilitarian sense merely of 
cooking and sanitation, but broadly and compre- 
hensively as dealing directly with the most vital 
conditions of human society, shall be given among 
our courses of study a place worthy its standing 

206 



CO-EDUCATION 

as the most eminent profession to which woman 
can aspire ! 

Co-education. — This suggests another phase 
of higher educational work in regard to which the 
varied experiences of different institutions have 
not yet resulted in the formulation of a doctrine 
that will be generally accepted. Are men and 
women so constituted that they can, with most 
profit, pursue their studies at the same college or 
university and in the same classes? The state- 
ment of President Jordan is a fair representative 
of the more progressive elements in contempo- 
rary pedagogical thought: 

* '' There are, of course, certain average dif- 
ferences between men and women as students. 
Women have often greater sympathy or 
greater readiness of memory or apprehension, 
greater fondness for technique. In the lan- 
guages and literature, often in mathematics 
and history, they are found to excel. They lack, 
on the whole, originality. They are not at- 
tracted by unsolved problems and in the in- 
ductive or ' inexact ' sciences they seldom take 

* David Starr Jordan, address before the Federation of 
Woman's Clubs, Los Angeles, May 5, 1902. 

207 



THE PREPARATORY STAGE 

the lead. The ' motor ' side of their minds 
and natures is not strongly developed. They 
do not work for results as much as for the 
pleasure of study. In the traditional courses 
of study — traditional for men — they are 
often very successful. Not that these courses 
have a fitness for women, but that women are 
more docile and less critical as to the purposes 
of education. And to all these statements there 
are many exceptions. In this, however, those 
who have taught both men and women must 
agree; the training of women is just as seri- 
ous and just as important as the training of 
men, and no training is adequate for either 
which falls short of the best. 

" Shall women be taught in the same classes 
as men? This is partly a matter of taste or 
personal preference. It does no harm what- 
ever to either men or women to meet those 
of the other sex in the same class rooms. 
But if they prefer not to do so, let them do 
otherwise. No harm is done in either case, 
nor has the matter more than secondary im- 
portance. Much has been said for and against 
the union in one institution of technical schools 

208 



CO-EDUCATION 

and schools of liberal arts. The technical 
quality is emphasized by its separation from 
general culture. But I believe that better men 
are made when the two are brought more close- 
ly together. The culture studies and their stu- 
dents gain from the feeling of reality and 
utility cultivated by technical work. The 
technical students gain from association with 
men and influences of which the aggregate 
tendency is toward greater breadth of sym- 
pathy and a higher point of view. 

" A woman's college is more or less dis- 
tinctly a technical school. In most cases, its 
purpose is distinctly stated to be such. It is 
a school of training for the profession of 
womanhood. It encourages womanliness of 
thought as more or less different from the plain 
thinking which is called manly. The bright- 
est work in woman's colleges is often accom- 
panied by a nervous strain, as though its doer 
were fearful of falling short of some outside 
standard. The best work of men is natural, 
is unconscious, the normal result of the con- 
tact of the mind with the problem in question. 

" In this direction, I think, lies the strong- 

209 



THE PREPARATORY STAGE 

est argument for co-education. This argument 
is especially cogent in institutions in which the 
individuality of the student is recognized and 
respected. In such schools each man, by his 
relation to action and realities, becomes a 
teacher of women in these regards, as, in other 
ways, each cultivated woman is a teacher of 
men. 

" In woman's education, as planned for 
women alone, the tendency is toward the study 
of beauty and order. Literature and language 
take precedence over science. Expression is 
valued more highly than action. In carrying 
this to an extreme the necessary relation of 
thought to action becomes obscured. The 
scholarship developed is not effective, because 
it is not related to success. The educated 
woman is likely to master technique, rather 
than art ; method, rather than substance. She 
may know a good deal, but she can do noth- 
ing. Often her views of life must undergo 
painful changes before she can find her place 
in the world. 

" In schools for men alone, the reverse con- 
dition often obtains. The sense of real- 

2IO 



CO-EDUCATION 

ity obscures the elements of beauty and fitness. 
It is of great advantage to both men and 
women to meet on a plane of equality in edu- 
cation. Women are brought into contact with 
men who can do things — men in whom the 
sense of reality is strong, and who have definite 
views of life. This influence afifects them for 
good. It turns them away from sentimental- 
ism. It gives tone to their religious thoughts 
and impulses. Above all, it tends to encourage 
action as governed by ideals, as opposed to 
that resting on caprice. It gives them better 
standards of what is possible and impossible 
when the responsibility for action is thrown 
upon them. 

"Tn like manner, the association with wise, 
sane and healthy women has its value for 
young men. This value has never been fully 
realized, even by the strongest advocates of 
co-education. It raises their ideal of woman- 
hood, and the highest manhood must be asso- 
ciated with such an ideal. 

" The only serious new argument against co- 
education is that derived from the fear of the 
adoption by universities of women's standards 

211 



THE PREPARATORY STAGE 

of art and science rather than those of men, the 
fear that amateurism would take the place of 
specialization in our higher education. Women 
take up higher education because they enjoy 
it ; men because their careers depend upon it. 
Only men, broadly speaking, are capable of 
objective studies. Only men can learn to face 
fact without flinching, unswayed by feeling or 
preference. The reality with women is the way 
in which the fact afifects her. Original inves- 
tigation, creative art, the ' resolute facing of 
the world as it is ' — all belong to man's world, 
not at all to that of the average woman. That 
women in college do as good work as the men 
is beyond question. In the university they 
do not, for this difference exists, the rare ex- 
ceptions only proving the rule, that women ex- 
cel in technique, men in actual achievement. If 
instruction through investigation is the real 
work of the real university, then in the real 
university the work of the most gifted wom- 
en may be only play ." 

With respect to past and present conditions, 
President Jordan's estimate of woman's relative 
status in higher educational work is unquestion- 



212 



FAILURE TO PRACTICE TRUE FUNCTION 

ably a fair one. But the great sociological 
changes now taking place must inevitably affect 
woman's higher education to a considerable de- 
gree. The rapidly increasing number of women 
who are entering the various professions will re- 
sult, in time, in the development of a more prac- 
tical, independent, creative, original spirit among 
womankind in general, without necessarily les- 
sening any of the qualities that contribute to the 
making of the best and truest and highest in 
present day womanhood. 

Failure of Our Colleges to Practice Their True 
Function.— As the work of the leading stage is 
the peculiar function of the latter half of the sec- 
ondary school course, so the work of the profes- 
sional preparatory stage is the peculiar function 
of the college. Yet, in this particular phase of ed- 
ucation where we should naturally expect to find 
the colleges strongest, they have, in the great 
majority of cases, proved the weakest. Look at 
their past courses of study. One would naturally 
expect, and he has a right to expect, that those 
who make a profession of educating our youth 
would investigate the relative educating powers 
of different studies, and would endeavor to ad- 



213 



THE PREPARATORY STAGE 

just these to the requirements of the particular 
student. As a rule, however, colleges have in the 
past educated their students much on the same 
general quantitative plan on which the stockman 
fattens his cattle — so much a head. It is true 
that the courses in the various subjects have been 
comprehensive and thorough. But this does not 
involve at all an adjusted apportionment of stud- 
ies. On the contrary, it may imply a special mo- 
nopoly of privileges. Such has been in the past 
the case with mathematics and the classics, and 
just now the pendulum seems to be swinging 
to the other extreme in favor of the natural sci- 
ences. It is also true that in recent years most 
colleges have introduced one or more courses be- 
sides the classical. 

The vital objection to all such plans is that 
they compel the student to adjust himself to a 
set course of development, instead of adjusting 
the means of development to the student's indi- 
viduality ; in other words, that it places formality 
above personality. While such a method may be 
permitted, with limitations, in our primary 
schools and in the first half of our secondary 
school courses, it is entitled to no valid place in 
our higher institutions. 

214 



FAILURE TO PRACTICE TRUE FUNCTION 

It is further true that in many colleges the 
student is permitted to select a part of his stud- 
ies, varying in different colleges from one-tenth 
to the whole of his work; but a large per cent of 
these electives are rather empty formalities than 
substantial gains. They remind one of the farmer 
who gave his son a sum of money and told him 
that he might spend it in whatever way he chose, 
provided he bought a pig or a calf or a sheep 
with it — the student may, in most of these in- 
stances, elect what he chooses, provided he 
chooses within a narrow range which has been 
arbitrarily prescribed. Even if he is allowed to 
elect his studies without restrictions, as is priv- 
ileged in some institutions, that does not imply 
that- he will make such selections with wisdom. 
The average student in the lower college classes is 
probably not qualified to map out intelligently his 
whole course. Still, it does not follow from this 
that he ought to have no voice in the selection of 
his work. Only a few of our leading institutions, 
notably Harvard and Leland Stanford, allow a 
wide choice of studies, and provide advisory 
boards for the purpose of assisting the students 
of the lower classes in selecting that course of 



215 



THE PREPARATORY STAGE 

Study best adapted to form an org-anlc basis for 
their future professional work, their semi-pro- 
fessional relations, and their non-professional in- 
terests. A considerable difficulty in the way of 
such selection of studies is found in the fact that 
so many students go to college simply because it 
is popular or to become just cultured gentlemen 
and ladies. On these two classes no comment 
need be wasted. But by far the larger propor- 
tion of college students are destined to be men 
and women of action, and their peculiar powers 
ought to receive marked attention in college. 
Much more stress will be laid on this point in 
the immediate future than has been in the past, 
for the philosophy of study is stirring the educa- 
tional world as it has never been stirred before. 

Chief Reason for Weakness of College Training. — 

Unquestionably, the chief reason why the ma- 
jority of our colleges have failed to practice the 
true function of college training in the life-build- 
mg process of education, rests in their mainte- 
nance of that abstract, impersonal conception of 
a " liberal education " aside from any distinct 
utilitarian value. There is no such thing as a 
"liberal education," however extended the course, 

216 



FAILURE TO PRACTICE TRUE FUNCTION 

unless every branch in it has a substantial value 
and a clearly-defined organic relation to the whole 
process of education in general, and to the indi-_ 
vidual student in particular. College education 
is not an end in itself. It is only a stage of 
education, lying between the secondary school 
and the professional school. In so far as 
it has forgotten its place and attempted to give 
an education complete in itself, there it has fal- 
len short in its mission, which is three-fold : first 
and major, to prepare the student for the pro- 
fessional school, not in that general, indefinite 
way called " liberal," but practically, scientifi- 
cally, organically; secondly, to provide a liberal 
training in those semi-professional phases of ac- 
tivity which our complex social and industrial 
life interweaves so closely with successful pro- 
fessional studies ; thirdly, to complement the nar- 
rowing tendencies of these preparatory studies 
along professional and semi-professional lines by 
such general culture studies as fully correspond 
to the individual mental wants. Just in what pro- 
portion these three departments of study in this 
stage should be distributed must be left for ex- 
perience to determine. Local circumstances will 

217 



THE PREPARATORY STAGE 

influence to some extent. It is enough now, that, 
where the work of the general foundation and 
leading stages has been well done, the work of 
this stage should be approximately: professional 
preparatory study, a double major; semi-profes- 
sional study, a major; general culture study, a 
minor. This is not suggested as an iron-clad 
formula. It is intended as simply an approxima- 
tion to the relative worth of these respective de- 
partments for achieving the purpose of this stage. 



218 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE PROFESSIONAL STAGE 

Three-fold Function.— Like the professional 
preparatory stage, and for the same reasons, the 
professional stage in its full compass should in- 
ckide three distinct Unes of study — strictly pro- 
fessional study, which is its center and backbone, 
semi-professional study, and general culture 
study. Until recently so much of the student's 
time was wasted, partly in the elementary schools, 
but chiefly in the so-called " liberal " training 
of the colleges, that it was found necessary to de- 
vote the entire time of the professional course to 
strictly professional work. But the better ad- 
justment of courses, in all grades, to^ the needs of 
the student is making it possible for the profes- 
sional schools to give more complete and rational 
training. The more progressive schools are rec- 
ognizing this three-fold function of the profes- 
sional stage in various ways, according to the 

219 



THE PROFESSIONAL STAGE 

particular conditions with whicli they each must 
deal. 

* " The college course in agriculture is de- 
signed for those graduates of the school of 
agriculture, and students from other institu- 
tions equally well prepared, who desire fur- 
ther instruction in practical agricultural sci- 
ence, in the sciences related to agriculture, 
and in literature and the arts." 
This comprehensive view of professional train- 
ing is being wrought out in its particular depart- 
ment by the School of Commerce, of the Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin, whose masterly conception 
of the work it seeks to accomplish is given in 
full further on : 

** " A carefully arranged curriculum has 
been prepared for this school (The School of 
Commerce) the object of which is to combine 
a thorough general education with such tech- 
nical training as is needed for the successful 
prosecution of the various lines of business 

which have been indicated The 

number of required studies in the course is 

* University of Minnesota Bulletin, June, 1902, p. 171. 
** Catalogue of University of Wisconsin, for 1901-1902. 

220 



THREE-FOLD FUNCTION 

larger than in the other regular courses in 
the College of Letters and Science of the 

University In addition there are 

several groups of technical courses available 
for the election of students and which lead to 

particular lines of business The 

school also offers limited opportunities for 
election from the numerous courses of study 
given in the various departments of the Uni- 
versity." 

Principles Underlying Three-fold Function. — 

Exclusively technical training is essentially wrong 
in principle and injurious in its effects in practi- 
cal life. It will not do, in any stage of the proc- 
ess, to lose sight of the whole aim of education. 
Completeness of personality must constantly 
stand foremost as the ultimate end toward which 
all courses of study shall tend. If it were true 
that this ultimate end were attained most success- 
fully by concentrating all energies in this stage 
upon the strictly technical work, then this stage 
should be an exclusively technical one. But rea- 
son and common experience have decided other- 
wise. It is a matter of general knowledge that 
the natural tendency of a prolonged course of 

221 



THE PROFESSIONAL STAGE 

Specialized study exclusively dwelt upon is to de- 
velop in the student a narrow and strongly ag- 
gressive spirit, an over-abundant egoism, an un- 
due assertion of self at the expense of others. 
This kind of spirit does, it is true, conduce to a 
certain kind of success — that kind measured by 
dollars and notoriety — but it is a deadly enemy 
to all the highest forms of personal character as 
well as to the highest forms of social and indus- 
trial life. 

Social Demands.— No one acquainted with the 
various phases of society to-day will deny that this 
abnormal egoism is the great fomenting cause of 
our present-day social problems. Look where you 
may, be it on the mighty struggle between labor 
and capital, on the fierce contest between the 
great department stores and the small retailers, 
on the bitter and prolonged war between the peo- 
ple and the giant combines striving to monopolize 
the necessities of life — such as sugar and coal ; 
or, coming nearer home, look at the exhibition of 
everyday life all around : The lawyer pleading 
his case in court puts forth all his energies to win 
the case for his client regardless of the merits of 
the matter and of the injustice that may 



222 



THREE-FOLD FUNCTION 

thereby be inflicted on the opposing party; the 
farmer, finding cholera breaking out among his 
bunch of fat hogs, rushes them off to market 
with hardly a second thought for the thousands 
of consumers whose lives he is thus imperiling; 
the man of business, wrapped in his overpower- 
ing ambition to amass a fortune, becomes accus- 
tomed to commercial practices in taking advan- 
tage of his fellow-men, which, while keeping 
within the literal provisions of the law, are never- 
theless inconsistent with moral equity and Chris- 
tian manhood ; the over-zealous churchman, 
focusing his whole sight upon the works of his 
particular sphere of activity, grows blind to the 
beneficent functions of other phases of endeavor 
and gradually comes to believe that all callings 
outside his own are either non-religious or else 
positively irreligious ; the tradesman, whose en- 
vironment generally exerts a more or less preju- 
dicial influence resulting in a class bias to his 
thinking and his sympathies, is prone to overlook 
all the necessary and upbuilding social functions 
of capital and capitalists and to regard them as 
powerful evils that must of right be shackled or 
crushed; the politician gloats over the victories 

223 



THE PROFESSIONAL STAGE 

and the glories of his party with an eye single to 
its dominancy until he can see nothing of conse- 
quence outside of it, and holds even the welfare 
of his country at critical moments subservient 
to the demands of party expediency. 

Professional Demands.— What is needed in prac- 
tical life is not only greater energy and a higher 
degree of technical ability, but also greater 
breadth of mind and a larger community of sym- 
pathy. The constantly increasing complexity of 
business relations due to the marvelous develop- 
ment of inventions and of means of rapid com- 
munication, and the corresponding advancement 
in political and social life resulting from this and 
from the general diffusion of knowledge, render 
a high degree of technical ability more and more 
a fundamental necessity for professional success. 
But this great advance in civilization has brought 
with it such an intricately interwoven social 
fabric that to succeed in any worthy calling in- 
volves much more than a mere comprehension 
of the technical duties of that calling ; it necessi- 
tates a thorough grounding in semi-professional 
and general culture work. One can not hope to 
attain to a position of commanding influence now- 

224 



THREE-FOLD FUNCTION 

a-days without a general familiarity with the 
fields lying all about his chosen field of work. The 
physician, for instance, must be more than a mere 
medical machine if he expects ever to rise to the 
upper strata of his profession. Not only does he 
stand in need of a general education such as is 
afforded in the preceding stages, but he must 
have a general culture corresponding in quality 
and degree to the advanced status of his techni- 
cal studies. This all, for the fulfillment of the 
man with direct reference to his personal success 
as a physician. 

Demands of the Complete Life.— When we come to 
consider his full success as a man, in the whole 
compass of all his powers and obligations, the 
range is even more broad and the requirements 
more exacting. A reasonable degree of personal 
success may be obtained although one be narrow 
and selfish and puny-hearted. Many rich men 
have made their immense fortunes through, or in 
spite of, the operation of these characteristics, 
and others have won fame in other lines by the 
same means; but such is only an inferior and 
temporary sort of success. The higher and last- 
ing success, that kind which grows firmer and 



225 



THE PROFESSIONAL STAGE 

richer as time wears on, requires a full man, 
strong, broad, lofty, great-souled, to make it at- 
tainable. In so far as education can give this 
completeness to the student, and it can achieve 
significant results toward this end when properly 
directed, its work in this stage must be done along 
the three great lines already mentioned — strictly 
professional study, semi-professional study, and 
general culture study. 

Lines of Inquiry. — Let us consider more in 
detail what the professional stage ought to ac- 
complish. For this purpose let us consider the 
aims, the character, and the relative importance 
of each of these three lines of study in this stage, 
that we may form a clear and rational conception 
of the professional stage in its entirety. 

Main Work — Professional Study Proper. — The aim 
of professional study proper is three-fold — to 
furnish an understanding of professional princi- 
ples, to acquaint the student with methods of 
professional investigation, and to impart skill in 
professional work. Institutions using this three- 
fold rule as the measure by which they lay out 
their courses of study seek first the foundation 
principles of professional life in general and of 

226 



LINES OF INQUIRY 

the profession, or professions, in particular for 
which they offer preparation, and strive to ascer- 
tain the arrangement of studies which will set 
forth these principles in the most lucid and sat- 
isfactory manner; they endeavor also to find the 
best methods of professional study for each par- 
ticular profession; and try to make each step so 
clear and the work so thorough that at the end 
of the course the student will be a skilled work- 
man in his line, in so far as it is possible to ac- 
complish this in the comparatively brief time to 
which the professional course is necessarily 
limited. 

Complementary Work — Semi-Professional Study and 
General Culture Study.— The semi-professional and 
general culture departments of the professional 
stage naturally comprise advanced work 
along the- same general lines as mapped 
out in the professional preparatory stage. 
The significance of this complementary work 
has already been commented on and need 
not be further mentioned here. The reason- 
ableness of it in rounding out his personality 
will appeal more and more to the student as he 
advances in his course, and as the complexity, the 

227 



THE PROFESSIONAL STAGE 

widely correlated interests, and the multifold re- 
sponsibilities of his life work begin to appear be- 
fore him in the fullness of their reality. So, it 
may be laid down as an inflexible rule, that the 
professional stage can not accomplish its whole 
purpose unless sufficient and thorough comple- 
mentary work is done along the lines of semi-pro- 
fessionalism and general culture. 

Practical Application. — Let us notice these 
three fundamental phases of the professional 
stage in their application to several of the leading 
professions, as revealed by a careful investiga- 
tion and sifting of the courses in leading univer- 
sities, colleges, and special schools, combined with 
whatever additions and emendations reason and 
experience would seem to dictate for our purposes 
in this connection. 

Professional Study — Teaching. — For the train- 
ing of teachers, the great majority of so-called 
professional courses in private normals and State 
normals do not deserve the name of professional 
courses at all. They are usually of high school 
grade, or, at the best, of a grade corresponding to 
the work of the lower classes in colleges, such 
work as ought to be done in the professional pre- 

228 



PROFESSIONAL STUDY — TEACHING 

paratory course for teachers. Only a few insti- 
tutions, particularly the University of the City 
of New York and Columbia University, main- 
tain what may properly be called a professional 
pedagogical course. 

Then let us inquire what general ground a 
strictly professional course for teachers should 
cover, assuming — as will be assumed for each 
of the professional courses to be noticed — that 
the professional preparatory work has already 
been well done, and keeping constantly before us 
that every professional course worthy of the name 
must be comprehensive enough in scope to include 
all the important bearings of that particular pro- 
fession for which it is the direct preparation, that 
it must be fertile enough in the exposition of prin- 
ciples to afford a clear and philosophic insight 
into the general nature of such profession, and 
that it must furnish sufificient practical work in 
the application of these theoretical studies to give 
a fair basis for successful entrance into the routine 
duties of every-day affairs. 

"As the study of humanity is the natural basis 
of the work of the teacher," the professional 
course in pedagogics should be such as to make 

229 



THE PROFESSIONAL STAGE 

the student an expert in dealing with those phases 
of humanity which come directly under his con- 
trol, and as well to furnish him superior train- 
ing in dealing with those phases correlated with, 
and directly subject to and modifying, his pro- 
fessional labors — such as the home, the church, 
and society at large. There are numerous 
schemes of classification for the essentials of this 
particular course, but for convenience we may 
divide it into five heads : ( i ) Those studies m 
which attention is focused upon the process of 
education, its methods, its philosophy, and its his- 
tory; (2) those studies which lead to a direct, 
face-to-face knowledge of the pupil, the natural 
process of his development, the distinguishing 
characteristics of the different steps of his devel- 
opment, the peculiarities of his individuality, his 
abnormalities, if any; (3) those studies dealing 
especially with the school as the great instrument 
by which education is largely achieved — school 
management, school hygiene, school supervision, 
and school law; (4) a pedagogical study of those 
school branches which form the material of school 
instruction — and especially of those which the 
student expects to teach — including the school 



230 



PROFESSIONAL STUDY — TEACHING 

aspects of physical and moral education; (5) 
practical work in teaching — under expert super- 
vision wherever possible — and a somewhat ex- 
tended professional visitation of schools in which 
the most progressive and successful methods are 
put in practice. 

The School of Pedagogy, of New York Uni- 
versity, gives an admirable outline of the work 
that such an institution should attempt: 

* " The aim of the School of Pedagogy 
is to furnish thorough and complete profes- 
sional training for teachers. For this pur- 
pose it brings together all that bears upon 
pedagogy from the history of education, from 
analytical, experimental and physiological psy- 
chology, from the science of medicine, from 
ethics, from philosophy, from aesthetics, from 
sociology, from the principles and art of 
teaching, and from a comparative study of 
different national systems of education. It 
unifies this knowledge into a body of pedagog- 
ical doctrine, and points out its application 
to the practical work of the educator. 



* New York University, School of Pedagogy Bulletin, 
June 15, 1902, p. 6. 

231 



THE PROFESSIONAL STAGE 

" The plan of the institution places it upon 
the same basis as that of the best schools of 
law, medicine, and theology. The work is 
of distinctively university grade." 

Such, in substance, are the general lines along 
which the professional pedagogical student must 
needs work, whether preparing for work in the 
kindergarten, in the primary room, in the gram- 
mar grades, in the high school, in the college, in 
the professional school, or as principal or super- 
intendent; though, of course, that particular de- 
partment of work for which preparation is being 
made should form the center of the pedagogical 
investigations, about which all the other phases 
cluster and upon which they may throw their 
added light. 

Agriculture. — A professional course in Agricul- 
ture, qualified to furnish a masterly acquaintance 
with the principles of farm work, should include 
at least the following: 

Agricultural Chemistry: — A study of soils, 
their nature, their constituent parts, their tem- 
peratures, their capacity for holding water, the 
relation of soils to plant growth ; crops, their ef- 
fects in exhausting soil fertility, and the order 

232 



PROFESSIONAL STUDY — AGRICULTURE 

of rotation in crops most successful in preserving 
fertility of soil; manures and fertilizers, natural 
and artificial, their constituents, their adaptabil- 
ity, and methods of application to soils; animal 
nutrition, the elements demanded by different 
kinds of animals, or at different periods of 
growth, or for different purposes ; feeding stuffs, 
considered with reference to furnishing the ele- 
ments of animal nutrition as above. 

Agricultural Physics: — Meteorology, methods 
of predetermining the weather conditions, and 
the instruments in common use ; the beneficial in- 
fluence of a scientific knowledge of weather con- 
ditions as affecting agricultural and horticultural 
interests; farm engineering, the principles of 
drainage and irrigation, the best methods of con- 
structing and maintaining country roads; farm 
architecture, uses and construction of farm build- 
ings; farm mechanics, study of vehicles and farm 
machinery, their strength, draft, and care, the 
ventilation warming, and sheltering power of 
farm buildings; tillage, the principles and the 
most successful methods as applied to different 
soils and climates and crops. 

Economic Zoology: — A study of insects in- 



233 



THE PROFESSIONAL STAGE 

jurious to grains, fruits, and vegetables, and of 
the methods, natural and artificial, of destroying 
them; and also a study of those insects helpful 
to the farmer, and of the methods of furthering 
their increase; the same of birds; the same of 
animals other than those called domestic animals. 

Animal Husbandry: — A study of the most val- 
uable breeds of live stock, characteristics, adapta- 
tion, and care of them, training in judging the 
points of good and of inferior animals by means 
of charts, models, score cards, etc. ; the funda- 
mental principles of breeding, heredity, correla- 
tion, prepotency, fecundity, atavism, variation, 
selection, period of gestation, in-and-in breeding, 
line breeding, etc. ; feeding stuffs, chemical con- 
stituents, quantities, methods of preparing, feed- 
ing as to purposes — whether for the block, for 
growth, for milk, or for work; diseases of farm 
animals and their treatment. 

HorticidUire: — General principles, conditions 
of soil and climate, propagation, planting, culti- 
vation, pruning, marketing, etc. ; economic horti- 
culture, the principal fruits and vegetables, grow- 
ing, harvesting, marketing, and preserving them ; 
injurious insects and plant diseases with their pre- 

234 



PROFESSIONAL STUDY — AGRICULTURE 

ventions and their remedies; aesthetic horticul- 
ture, the principles of landscape gardening, 
forming and caring for lawns, with a study of 
plants best adapted to these purposes. 

Bacteriology: — Agricultural bacteriology, the 
relation of bacteria to various agricultural proc- 
esses, the germ theory of disease, fermentation 
and decomposition as applied to practical agricul- 
ture; dairy bacteriology, the relation of bacteria 
to dairy problems, normal and abnormal fermen- 
tations in milk, etc. 

Dairying: — Selecting and handling dairy stock, 
general principles of butter making and cheese 
making, the equipments necessary for successful 
dairying. 

Farm Equipment : — The location of buildings, 
the formation of fields, the selection of machin- 
ery, general supervision and management — a 
study of these and extensive visitations and con- 
ferences with farmers who have successfully put 
into practice the most modern methods of scien- 
tifi,c farming. 

Agricultural Economics: — The sociological 
position of agriculture, its interrelations with 
other industries; the fundamental principles of 

235 



THE PROFESSIONAL STAGE 

political economy, such as value, prices, money, 
banks, wages, industrial and monetary crises, the 
relations between labor and capital, the develop- 
ment and intricate division of industries, the 
increase of urban population — considered with 
special reference to their bearings on land and 
agricultural products. 

Rural Law: — The laws of his own State bear- 
ing most directly upon the practical relations of 
the farmer, such as the essentials of deeds, leases, 
mortgages, contracts, and commercial paper, with 
practice in drafting them; road law, outside 
fences, trespassing, noxious weeds, easements for 
ditching or water right or travel, live stock laws 
relating to contagious or infectious diseases or 
to the running at large of stock, and other com- 
mon phases of the legal rights and duties of 
farmers. 

Several State Universities and Agricultural 
Schools are now offering courses of study highly 
valuable for their comprehensiveness and organic 
character. But in many of the schools there is 
much yet to be desired. Doubtless, a large part 

For the above outline of agricultural study special ac- 
knowledgment for suggestions is due to the University of 
Wisconsin and Purdue University. 

236 



PROFESSIONAL STUDY — BUSINESS 

of this lack of professional equipment is due to 
the failure of State legislatures to make sufficient 
appropriations. It is entirely probable that the 
immediate future will witness provisions made in 
the common schools of rural districts for teaching 
the elements of agriculture. It is to be earnestly 
hoped that this may be brought about. Practi- 
cal courses in the rudiments of agricultural 
science are of incomparably greater value to the 
average rural student than is much of the ad- 
vanced work in technical grammar and algebra; 
not merely from a financial point of view, but 
from the standpoint of independent citizenship 
and all-round strength of character. 

Business.— The business courses, presumed to 
be professional, and ordinarily so-called, as of- 
fered by the average " Business College," are not 
really professional courses, except in a very lim- 
ited sense, and do not by any means meet the re- 
quirements that a thorough professional course in 
business should meet. No one will deny that the 
better grade of business courses now in vogue 
will produce skilled clerks and expert account- 
ants, but that they will tend to produce masterly, 
far-sighted, broad-minded men of affairs, men 

237 



THE PROFESSIONAL STAGE 

whose ambition is to be influential factors in 
great enterprises and who are not satisfied to be 
for life merely the hired human machines of some 
other financial master — that a few months spent 
in the ordinary business college will naturally 
lead the student into such currents of aspiration 
and prepare him to fill eventually such exalted 
positions, cannot for a moment be maintained. 
It is undisputed that many of our richest men 
have reached eminence with only a very limited 
school training in business, or with none at all; 
but their success was due in large measure to 
inherent genius, and their careers would not, in 
this respect, be safe guides for the vast majority 
who are not so singularly gifted. Besides, the 
mere amassing of money does not in itself mean 
success; on the contrary, it may mean the most 
ignominious of life failures. Doubtless, every 
reader can recall some man of enormous wealth 
whose happiness diminished as his business in- 
creased, whose heart contracted as his pocketbook 
expanded, whose higher, nobler life lay seared 
and dying as his millions-piled-on-millions held 
the wondering admiration of a money- worship- 
ping world. 

238 



PROFESSIONAL STUDY — BUSINESS 

It is not all of life to eat and buy and sell. 
And a professional course ought to be so philo- 
sophic in its treatment of professional life and 
so true to the principles of complete life-develop- 
ment that the future man of business will be 
able to become a successful leader, not by tramp- 
ling upon justice and mercy and brotherly inter- 
est, but by calling all the nobler powers of his 
mind into constant play, and by building up his 
whole character side by side with the increase of 
his business interests. Then, when his coffers 
are full of gold his soul-life will be full of those 
treasures which go to make himself and his 
fellow-men stronger and better and happier. 
Not that any course, however valuable in itself, 
can give these qualities to the student if he does 
not already possess the germs of them, but it can 
open up avenues of development that make a con- 
stant demand on all the stronger and loftier ele- 
ments of character. 

Such a course ought to contain, not only the 
work ordinarily given — a study of, and practice 
in, methods of accounting, modern mercantile 
methods, office work ( real estate, insurance, com- 
mission, transportation and shipping, jobbing 

239 



THE PROFESSIONAL STAGE 

and importing, railroad, etc.), banks and clear- 
ing houses, exchanges (stock and produce), and 
commercial law — but also a thorough study of 
money and the money market; of the economic 
history of England and of the United States; 
of industrial and financial crises and economic 
conditions generally; of the geography and his- 
tory of commerce ; of transportation, its meth- 
ods (railroads and waterways) and their in- 
fluence on business conditions ; of corporations, 
trusts, and monopolies, their advantages, disad- 
vantages, and legal regulations ; of prices and the 
conditions chiefly determining them ; of the 
wages system, progressive wages, the sliding- 
scale, profit-sharing, cooperation ; of other eco- 
nomic problems that may arise, such as the sweat- 
ing system, labor organizations, department 
stores versus the small retailers ; of the sociologi- 
cal position and functions of commercial institu- 
tions as the medium between the great agricul- 
tural class of producers on the one hand and the 
whole people as consumers on the other, with ex- 
tended investigations into the effects on business 
of those meteorological changes which affect so 
vitally agricultural interests, and of the chief con- 

240 



PROFESSIONAL STUDY - BUSINESS 

ditions determining the standard of living of the 
whole people — for instance, the tendency 
toward city life and the general diffusion of 
knowledge and worthy ideals. 

The School of Commerce, of the University 
of Wisconsin, has manifested such a comprehen- 
sive and masterly grasp of the work a com- 
mercial school should do, that it has been 
thought worth while to give in full the plan of 
its course of study : 

* " PLAN OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 

" The studies of the School will be de- 
scribed in three groups: 

" I. Those required of all students no mat- 
ter what business they desire to enter. 

''II. Specially arranged and correlated 
electives leading to the particular business 
which the student intends to enter. 

" III. Free electives chosen for the pur- 
poses of general culture. 

/. Required Studies. 

"The courses belonging to this group are 
of three sorts : 

" (a) Those needed as a foundation or 

* Catalogue, University of Wisconsin for 1901-02. 
241 



THE PROFESSIONAL STAGE 

preparation for more technical courses which 
are to follow. Under this head fall the courses 
in trigonometry, chemistry, physics, mediae- 
val, modern, and American history, and eco- 
nomic geography. Trigonometry is needed in 
the study of physics ; chemistry is essential 
to the study of the materials of commerce and 
their adulterations ; and physics lays the foun- 
dation for the study of the generation and 
transmission of power, materials for construc- 
tion, etc. The courses in history and economic 
geography are essential to the successful study 
of the subjects enumerated under (b) and 
they are also of direct practical advantage in 
extending the student's horizon and in giving 
him such an acquaintance with national hab- 
its and characteristics, and such skill in the 
interpretation of men and events, as are es- 
sential to the highest success in business. 

" (b) This group includes a number of 
courses designed to acquaint the student with 
the structure of the business and commercial 
world, and with the methods of conducting 
modern business enterprises. Under this 
head fall the courses in the industrial history 

242 



PROFESSIONAL STUDY — BUSINESS 

of England, the history of commerce, business 
forms and accounts, transportation, banking 
and the mechanism of exchange, business or- 
ganization and management, commercial law, 
and economics. 

" (c) The studies belonging to this group 
are as essential to the general equipment of 
the business man, no matter what particular 
branch of business he pursues, as those men- 
tioned under (a) and (b). It includes Ger- 
man, French, and Spanish. In one of these 
languages, at least, the student must acquire 
such facility in reading, speaking and writing 
as will enable him successfully to conduct 
business in the countries in which the language 

he" has learned is spoken This group 

also includes a series of graded courses in the 
Study of English, designed to enable the 
student to use his mother tongue fluently and 
correctly. It also includes a course in the 
generation and transmission of power, de- 
signed to give the business men who graduate 
from this school a knowledge of the natural 
sources and limitations of water, steam, and 
electric power, and of the important place 

243 



THE PROFESSIONAL STAGE 

which these physical agencies occupy in the 
successful conduct of business enterprises. 

" A careful, technical study of some group 
of products is also required of all students. 
So far as possible each one will be allowed to 
select the group in which he is most interested 
and which will best fit him for the business he 
expects to follow. As an indispensable aid to 
studies of this sort a commercial museum is 
being accumulated. 

//. Technical Electives. 

" In addition to the studies enumerated 
above and required of all students, groups of 
courses are arranged extending throughout the 
junior and senior years and designed to fur- 
nish special preparation for particular lines 
of business. Each student is required to elect 
one of these g/oups. The two following, pre- 
paratory to the business of banking and the 
consular service respectively, may be cited as 
typical : 

" The first mentioned group consists of the 
following courses: (a) The Elements of 
Money and Banking; (b) The History of the 

244 



PROFESSIONAL STUDY — BUSINESS 

Currencies of the Chief Modern Nations ; and 
(c) Corporation, Finance and Securities. 

" The consular group consists of the follow- 
ing courses ; (a) International Law ; (b) Com- 
mercial Geography of Europe ; (c) History of 
Diplomacy; (d) History and characteristic 
features of the consular services of the chief 
foreign countries; (e) The Consular Service 
of the United States. 

///. Free Elect ives. 

" From three to five hours per week be- 
ginning with the second semester of the sopho- 
more year and extending throughout the 
junior and senior years will be available to the 
students of this school for free electives. A 
large number of courses in the various depart- 
ments of the University will be open to them, 
and they will be urged to make such selections 
as will contribute most to the increase of their 
general culture and to the extension of their 
knowledge along lines not represented in the 
required work of the school." 

The temptation to enter upon a business career 
with a totally insufficient training is greater, per- 
haps, than in any other profession, with the 

245 



THE PROFESSIONAL STAGE 

exception of farming and teaching and domes- 
tic science. In each case there is no vaUd excuse 
for the existence of this lamentable lack of pro- 
fessional character. No one acquainted with 
human nature through the practical contact of 
everyday affairs believes that all young people 
can carry out highly developed technical courses 
demanding a natural adaptation to severe mental 
work. That will not be disputed. But, on the 
whole, what most students need is not so much 
an intensely scholastic temperament, as a strong, 
clear grasping of the fundamental principles of 
their future professional work — any student of 
ordinary capacity can get this — and a thorough 
and extensive application of these principles to 
the practical duties of everyday life — any stu- 
dent with a respectable measure of pluck and 
will-power can do this, also. 

Domestic Science. — In the preceding chapter 
some of the studies most valuable as preparatory 
to the professional study of Domestic Science 
were mentioned. Here let us take notice of those 
which seem most essential to a strictly profes- 
sional course, much of which must necessarily 
depend upon the thoroughness with which the 

246 



PROFESSIONAL STUDY — DOMESTIC SCIENCE 

Studies of the professional preparatory course 
have been carried on, since this course involves 
the practical application of the scientific principles 
there laid down. As in the case of the business 
course, we have to strike into a comparatively 
new and unexplored field in suggesting the gen- 
eral features of such a course. No courses in 
Domestic Science offered in any educational in- 
stitution at the present time are worthy the dig- 
nity of a complete and thorough professional 
course, although several institutions offer courses 
in this line, some of which extend over several 
terms' work and are of considerable merit. 

The Secretary of Agriculture has well said in 
his report for 1897: 

"'In this (Domestic Science), as in other 
branches of instruction which have a vital 
relation to the arts and industries, the student 
should learn not only the best methods of do- 
ing the things required by the daily needs of 
home life, but also the reasons why certain 
things are to be done and others avoided. 
In other words, this teaching needs a scien- 
tific basis if it is to be thoroughly useful. 
In this respect domestic science is in the same 

247 



THE PROFESSIONAL STAGE 

category with medicine, engineering, and agri- 
culture. It is not so very long ago that medi- 
cine and engineering were very largely empiri- 
cal arts, and the schools of medicine and en- 
gineering were principally engaged in teach- 
ing men the things they were to do when they 
became doctors or engineers. To-day, no 
doctor or engineer is considered fitted to 
pursue his profession until he has drunk deep 
at the fountains of science and knows well 
the principles on which successful practice 
must be based. In agriculture it is coming to 
be clearly seen that teaching the boy how to 
plow or to perform any other farm operation is 
not the most important service which the 
school can render. There must be added to 
this, definite and careful instruction in the 
principles on which agricultural practice is 
based. The farmer must be taught to think in 
the lines where science has shed light upon his 
art, if his practice is to be most thoroughly 
successful. Fortunately, science has already 
much to tell the farmer which is most useful 
to him, and every year sees an increase in the 

248 



PROFESSIONAL STUDY — DOMESTIC SCIENCE 

great store room from which the agricultural 
student can safely draw. 

" Now, what has been done for the boy in 
agriculture and engineering needs to be done 
for the girl in domestic art and science. And 
already the beginnings of a far-reaching effort 
in this direction have been made." 

Some of the most important features of a 
course which it is believed our best universities 
will eventually offer as a standard, are here sug- 
gested — a knowledge of physics and chemistry 
is highly desirable : — 

House Equipment and Management: — Furni- 
ture, cooking utensils ; the arrangement of 
kitchen, dining-room, bed-rooms, etc., with ref- 
erence to hygienic principles of light, heat, and 
ventilation ; the application of chemical principles 
to the cleaning of wood- work, furniture, dishes, 
clothing ; the servant problem ; social duties as 
hostess ; visitations and conferences with pro- 
gressive and successful housekeepers. 

Foods: — The elements of physical nutrition; 
the composition of foods; kinds of food as de- 
manded by conditions of climate, season, occupa- 
tion, age, or state of health ; methods of testing 
the most common adulterations of food. 

249 



THE PROFESSIONAL STAGE 

Cooking: — Fundamental principles; extensive 
application of these principles in the preparation 
of all the common kinds of foods. 

House Sanitation: — Ventilation; heating; 
light; drainage; disinfectants. 

Dress: — A thorough study of and practical 
work in the application of hygienic and artistic 
principles to the making of clothing. 

Economic Biology: — A practical study of bot- 
any and zoology with special reference to their 
food phases — presupposing a fair general 
knowledge of these subjects. 

Domestic AistJietics: — Free-hand drawing; 
principles of and studies in interior house deco- 
ration ; floriculture and landscape gardening. 

Advanced Hygiene: — Advanced hygienic phys- 
iology with special reference to the peculiar con- 
stitution of woman and her ailments, the condi- 
tions of maternity, the physical care of children, 
and care of the sick and injured. 

The Science of Education: — A practical study 
of the philosophy of education, with particular 
emphasis upon the educative influences that may 
be brought to bear upon children in the home 
life; a systematic series of investigations in prac- 



250 



PROFESSIONAL STUDY — DOMESTIC SCIENCE 

tical child-study, designed to afford a scientific 
guidance in the rational training of children, in- 
tellectually, physically, and morally. 

In one respect the course in domestic science 
differs from the other professional courses — in 
that it demands an unusually large complement 
of semi-professional and general culture study, 
owing to the manifold duties of woman in the 
fullness of her work as queen of the home. 
Holding essentially the combined positions of a 
practical scientist, a teacher, a business manager, 
and a confidential adviser, she must needs possess 
a wide and varied culture to meet successfully 
all her numerous obligations. More and more 
are w^e beginning to recognize that the profes- 
sion- of domestic science, in this broad sense, is 
the peer of any of the professions and that it 
demands equally thorough preparation. Of 
course, this thorough preparation can only be for 
those young women who are gifted by nature 
with power to do prolonged and severe mental 
work. But they will be the leaven for the whole 
mass ; and, in a modified form, the essential prin- 
ciples can eventually be conveyed to all through 
many of the numerous avenues of intellectual 



251 



THE PROFESSIONAL STAGE 

communication. Perhaps it will be some time 
yet before our higher institutions can be brought 
to offer complete and thorough courses in do- 
mestic science. It is not altogether to their 
credit that the neglect has been allowed to run 
thus long. 

Law, Medicine, and Theology.— The chief draw- 
back to satisfactory professional education in 
law, medicine, and theology, in this country, has 
been the low grade of requirements allowed to 
suffice for entrance to all but a few schools. It is 
absolutely impossible that the average student 
with only a common school education, or even 
with only a high school education, can get out 
of a comprehensive course in either of these pro- 
fessions, all that ought to be got from it. Some 
institutions are going to the opposite extreme by 
requiring a college diploma, or its equivalent, as 
a requisite for admission. Such demands are 
unwise in so far as they assume that the present 
college course occupies no more time than should 
be occupied by the professional preparatory 
course. Real fitness to do the work required in 
these courses, and not mere formality of previous 
training, ought to be, and must eventually be- 

252 



PROFESSIONAL STUDY — LAW 

come, the only approved test of a student's quali- 
fications to enter upon professional study. 

The courses at present in our better classes of 
these schools are generally comprehensive in 
scope and organic in character, in so far as 
strictly professional study is concerned. 

Law, Great Changes in.— With the lawyer, espe- 
cially, professional education must be determined 
to a considerable extent by sociological condi- 
tions. The great changes which have taken 
place in the industrial world in the last ten years 
were briefly outlined in the chapter on leading 
study, and need not be dwelt on here, further 
than to call attention to the rapidly increasing 
demand for a broad and masterly grasp of com- 
mercial institutions and of industrial conditions 
in general, on the part of the future lawyer. 
What a professional course should do for the 
law student in a disciplinary way has been well 
put by a leading western university : 

* " The power to think clearly, to reason 
cogently, to perceive distinctions quickly, to 
investigate thoroughly, to generalize carefully, 
and to express his thoughts accurately are the 

* The University of Minnesota, Bulletin, June i, 1902. 



THE PROFESSIONAL STAGE 

basal qualifications of the safe counsellor. To 
secure for the student these habits of thought 
and expression should be the aim of both the 

student himself and his instructor 

So far as possible he (the student) should, at 
the end of his course, grasp the various sub- 
jects of law in the unity of a system.*' 

The following outline of the three years' in- 
struction given in the principles of law by the 
College of Law of the University of Wisconsin 
may be considered as fairly representative of the 
best law schools of our country, including: 
* " First. The Common Law, its history, 
development, and present state in the United 
States, with the statutory modifications gener- 
ally adopted in the several States. 

" Second. Equity, its history, development, 
and present state in the United States. 

" Third. The Law of Procedure, including 
the practice and pleading in Common-Law 
Courts, Courts of Equity, and under the Codes 
of Civil Procedure, and in the Federal Courts. 
" Fourth. The Public Law of the United 
States, and Constitutional Law. 

* Catalogue, University of Wisconsin, 1901-02. 
254 



PROFESSIONAL STUDY — SCHOOLS COMPARED 

" International Law, Roman Law, and Com- 
parative Constitutional Law are taught in the 
University in classes open to students of the 
College of Law." 

The above work is based on a minimum pre- 
paratory training of standard high schools, or 
the equivalent. Harvard, and Columbia begin- 
ning in 1903, admit none but graduates of col*- 
leges and scientific schools in good standing, or 
persons with equivalent training. The majority 
of our law schools need to elevate their grade of 
work. It is idle to expect first-class results in 
the professional school without a comprehensive 
and thorough professional preparatory course, of 
collegiate grade. 

Spirit of Medical and of Theological Schools Com- 
pared. — Generally speaking, the standard of the 
schools of medicine and theology in this country 
have been higher and more nearly satisfactory 
than those of other professions. True, there 
have been, and still are, a number of low grade 
medical and theological schools, particularly med- 
ical schools. But public sentiment is more 
keenly awake to the needs for high grade training 
in these two fields than in any other fields of pro- 

255 



THE PROFESSIONAL STAGE 

fessional activity — and the most effective edu- 
cational work is seldom very far in advance of 
the best public sentiment. In fact, the very 
nature of the medical profession, scientific, prac- 
tical, many-sided, has kept it constantly in touch 
with the best of progress in all the chief lines 
of human activity. The Johns Hopkins and 
Harvard Medical Schools stand for the best in 
American professional education. On the other 
hand, the classical inheritance of the theologfical 
profession has rather tended to make it exclu- 
sive, over-scholarly, and distant from the prac- 
tical conditions of the masses of the people. 

Christian Sociology. — Much credit is due to 
Oberlin and Yale for the emphasis they are lay- 
ing upon the study of Christian Sociology in 
their theological courses. The minister ought to 
be better acquainted in the future, than he has 
been in the past, with the growth and organiza- 
tion of society, with the formation of social 
classes, with the dangers attending the concen- 
tration of population in cities, with the liquor 
question, with the relations of capital and labor, 
and, in general, with the defective, dependent, 
and delinquent classes. 

256 



PROFESSIONAL STUDY — CHRISTIAN 

Christian Pedagogy, The Great Theological Need. — 

But the one thing most lamentably lacking in the 
equipment of the average minister is skilled train- 
ing in Christian Pedagogy. The minister ought 
to be a teacher, yea, a teacher of teachers, among 
his flock. He ought to be perfectly familiar 
with the natural order of development of the 
powers of the human mind, so that he could 
adapt his work to the best possible advantage. 
It is with feelings of the deepest reverence that 
criticism must be offered here. Witness the his- 
tory of the great International System of Sunday 
School lessons. What a pedagogical monstros- 
ity! No superintendent of public schools could 
hold his position for a day, who should venture 
to give all the pupils in all the grades of every 
school under his authority exactly the same 
topics for study. It is not natural for the young 
child to grasp the same lines of thought as the 
youth, nor is either the young child or the youth 
most naturally interested in the things of deep- 
est concern to grown persons — no matter how 
these topics be simplified or scholarized. The 
Creator, in his infinite wisdom, has provided a 
natural order of learning, varying at different 



257 



THE PROFESSIONAL STAGE 

stages of development in the human Hfe, and the 
minister is under as great obligation to become 
familiar with this natural order of development 
as is the educator in the secular schools. It is 
indicative of marked progress in this respect to 
notice the emphasis now being laid on Christian 
Pedagogy by a number of our leading theological 
schools. 

Journalism. — Even more than with the law, the 
professional courses in journalism must be deter- 
mined by sociological conditions ; for, to deal 
with society in all its varied phases, political, in- 
dustrial, social, religious, educational, literary, 
light and serious, present and past, local and in- 
ternational, is the function of the journalist. He 
cannot hope to be successful without skilled train- 
ing along the lines where his work lies. Why 
should we not have professional schools of Jour- 
nalism, of equal grade with our best schools of 
Law, Theology, and Medicine? The need for 
broadly and thoroughly trained men is as great 
in journalism as in the other professions. No 
other class of workers wields a more powerful 
influence over the welfare of our country, our 
homes, and our very lives, than do the men at the 

258 



PROFESSIONAL STUDY — JOURNALISM 

editorial desks. The University of Wisconsin, 
so fertile in organizing comprehensive schemes 
of work along various lines, offers a course in 
preparation for journalism, of rare insight into 
the essential equipment of the high grade journal- 
ist and rich in suggestion to other institutions 
contemplating similar courses. The course 
covers a period of three years, beginning with 
the junior collegiate year : 

* " Some studies which are absolutely indis- 
pensable are italicized, and others will be in- 
dicated by the special adviser of the student, 
according to the work for which the latter is 
preparing. Beyond this the students are left 
free to take electives in other departments. 

" " It is presumed that students entering the 
school have studied ancient, mediaeval, and 
modern history, as well as the elements of 
economics and political science. The language 
requirements will be adapted to individual 
needs, but the minimum requirement will be 
that of some one of the existing courses in the 
University, the students being allowed to make 

* School of Economics and Political Science, Unii^ersity 
of Wisconsin, Catalogue, 1901-02. 



THE PROFESSIONAL STAGE 

choice among- the courses for this minimum of 
language work. 

JUNIOR. 

Economic Problems. 

American History. 

Constitutional Law. 

Modern Systems of Education. 

Agricultural Industries. 

Municipal Government. 

Moral Progress and Moral Education. 

Advanced English. 

General Survey of English Literature. 

American Literature. 

SENIOR. 
English Constitutional History. 
Nineteenth Century History. 
Political Thought. 
Contemporary Politics. 
History of the West, alternately with Eco- 
nomic and Social History. 
Colonial Politics. 
Social Ethics. 
Press Lazvs. 

State and Federal Administration. 
International Law. 

260 



PROFESSIONAL STUDY — JOURNALISM 

Advanced English. 
English Literature. 

, GRADUATE. 
Advanced English. 
Seminary in American History. 
Distribution of Wealth. 
Public Finance. 
Modern Sociological Thought. 
Seminary in Political Philosophy. 
Seminary in Economics. 
Diplomacy. 

History of Institutions. 
Seminary work in some line will be re- 
quired." 

It is added in explanation of the above course : 

" It does not aim to offer technical instruc- 
tion in the methods of practical journalism, 
but to provide a fund of information on social, 
economic, political, and historical questions, 
which is indispensable in journalistic work of 
a high grade." 

May we not, of right, expect for the near fu- 
ture that our leading universities will ofifer the 
equivalent of the above course, and, in addition, 

261 



THE PROFESSIONAL STAGE 

technical instruction in the methods of practical 
journalism ? 

Complementary Study. — Semi-Professional and 
General Culture. — There seems to be a growing 
disposition among professional schools to allow 
the semi-professional and general culture studies 
a place on the program. It has been the 
logical result, partly of our highly industrialized 
civilization, but chiefly of our arbitrary, loosely 
connected systems of educational work, to 
make our education, and especially our higher 
education, abnormally specialistic and technical. 
But a healthy reaction is setting in, and the vital, 
character-building import of these two comple- 
mentary courses is gradually being recognized 
and their recognition embodied in our profes- 
sional curricula. 

Recognition by Schools. — Under certain restric- 
tions, most of our leading universities have 
thrown open the college department to students 
in their professional schools. In doing this, the 
ultimate aim has, doubtless, been rather to se- 
cure a thoroughly grounded and comprehensive 
professional training, than to afford opportunity 
for high-grade training in these two great com- 
plementary fields. 

262 



COMPLEMENTARY STUDY 

* " It seems to be conceded now that the law 
should be studied in a law school, and that the 
law school should be connected with a uni- 
versity, where students may avail themselves 
of opportunities for the study of such other 
branches of learning as are of allied signifi- 
cance." 

** " The graduate courses of instruction in 
the University are open to the students of the 
Divinity School without charge, on conditions 
prescribed by the Theological Faculty. Un- 
dergraduate courses in the University are also 
open to students of the Divinity School with 
the consent of the instructor in each case and 
likewise under conditions prescribed by the 
Theological Faculty." 

f " Students of the Department of Medicine 
may attend, without additional charge, the lec- 
tures and recitations in any other department 
of the University. This privilege, however, 
can be obtained only by the concurrent endorse- 

* University of Michigan, Department of Law, An- 
nouncement, 1902-03. 

** Yale Divinity School, Announcement, 1902-03. 

t University of Pennsylvania, Department of Medicine, 
Announcement, February, 1903. 

263 



THE PROFESSIONAL STAGE 

ment of the application in writing by the 
Deans of the respective Faculties." 

* " All students of the Scientific School 
may, if found competent, pursue any of the 
courses of instruction g-iven in the other de- 
partments of the University, except exercises 
carried on in the special laboratories, without 
additional charge. 

Relative Amount.— The relative amount of time, 
as compared with the strictly professional work, 
which semi-professional and general culture 
study should require in this stage, presupposing 
a balanced training of the student in the previous 
stages, will naturally be somewhat less than in 
the professional preparatory stage, owing to the 
more centralized character of this stage — ap- 
proximately, minor studies to a double major. 

Character of Semi-Professional Study. — The 

character of the semi-professional study in this 
stage, for the several professions just noticed, 
may be summed up in a few words, so far as our 
purpose here demands. Taking into considera- 
tion the great social fact that society is an or- 

* Lawrence Scientific School, Harvard University, An- 
nouncement, 1902-03, 

264 



CHARACTER OF STUDY 

ganism, that all phases of life-activity are con- 
sequently more or less related to each other, and 
that certain spheres of life work are so directly 
related to each other as practically to form groups 
in which a professional preparation for one 
sphere in the group necessitates a somewhat ex- 
tended knowledge of the other spheres in that 
group and also by reason of these semi-profes- 
sional relations, brings special obligations upon 
the student to equip himself along these semi-pro- 
fessional lines that he may be fitted to wield a 
potent power for the uplifting of those social in- 
stitutions for which he ought to do much — tak- 
ing these things into consideration, as every 
rational system of education must, we have only 
to inquire what this means for each of the pro- 
fessions under consideration. 

Principles Applied. — Since the professional equip- 
ment of the teacher lies in the fund of knowledge 
and experience which he possesses concerning the 
science and art of developing children into noble, 
useful men and women, he is particularly fitted 
to exert a strong and beneficial influence upon 
all those institutions which aid or hinder the 
school in its work — such as the home, the Sun- 



265 



THE PROFESSIONAL STAGE 

day school, and local society in its educational 
phases. As the highest function of the student 
of domestic science, as future wife and mother, 
is essentially the same as that of the teacher — 
the bringing of childhood into completeness of 
manhood and womanhood — she owes it as a 
duty to prepare herself to take an active part in 
those related institutions which bear toward this 
end : the school, the Sunday school, the church, 
and local society. So, the business man, not only 
because of his direct interests, but because of 
his economic training, is peculiarly qualified to 
wield a powerful influence in the management of 
municipal politics, which despite its name is 
largely a business affair. So, the lawyer, skilled 
by professional training in the science of the 
structure of society and in the practical ordering 
of social relations, has been, and will always be, 
the influential factor in politics and government. 
So, the farmer, conceding to the lawyer the lead- 
ership in state and national governments and to 
the business man the leadership in municipal gov- 
ernment, finds that upon himself mainly rests the 
maintenance and advancement of the systems of 
local self-government, county and township, of 
the latter of which Thomas Jefferson said : 

266 



PRINCIPLES DETERMINING 

" It is the vital principle of our government, 
and has proved itself the wisest invention ever 
devised by the wit of man for the perfect exer- 
cise of self-government, and for its preserva- 
tion." 

These outlines do not pretend to include all 
the semi-professional phases of these profes- 
sions. The aim has been simply to suggest to 
our educators the great truth, that semi-profes- 
sionalism is the second fundamental department 
of life-activity. 

Principles Determining Length of Professional 
Stage.— The length of the professional stage 
best adapted to produce the most effective profes- 
sional workers is determined by clearly defined 
limits. The minimum limit demands that enough 
time and labor shall be expended to achieve the 
three-fold purpose of professional study — a 
clear understanding of the fundamental profes- 
sional principles, an intimate acquaintance with 
the best methods of professional work, and 
enough skill to enter intelligently upon the de- 
tails of practical life — and also to afford a rea- 
sonable amount of semi-professional and of gen- 
eral culture study. A professional stage that, in 

267 



■ THE PROFESSIONAL STAGE 

any way, falls short of fullness in these respects, 
is, to that extent, incomplete. The maximum 
limit is determined by the natural development of 
the student as a social being, which demands, for 
reasons mentioned in a previous chapter, that he 
shall be prepared to enter upon the duties of his 
life work as soon as possible after the age of 
twenty-one. Allowing three years for the length 
of the professional stage — an amount of work 
which our ablest and most experienced educators 
have found necessary — it is not practicable un- 
der existing educational conditions to finish the 
professional stage much before the age of twenty- 
four. But altogether likely the advance in edu- 
cational methods will soon render it possible to 
reduce the age of entering upon professional life 
by two or three years — an end greatly to be 
desired. However, until such concentration of 
work shall be brought about, completeness of 
study should be insisted upon, even at the ex- 
pense of a few years of time. 

Principles Governing General Culture Study. — 
In concluding these brief expositions of the great 
stages of study, it does not seem necessary to 
mention further the place of general culture 

268 



PRINCIPLES GOVERNING 

Study in the general scheme, except to emphasize 
again that syjnmetry and completeness of char- 
acter cannot be developed without carrying on a 
liberal course of general culture work continu- 
ously and systematically ; not work that is merely 
traditional, fashionable, or popular, but that 
which is in harmony with the mental constitution 
of the individual student. In general, the work 
of general culture may be said to lie along three 
lines : ( i ) preparation for intelligent partici- 
pation in those social and political phases of so- 
ciety, national, state, and local, amidst which we 
live, demanding a full and practical study of so- 
cial and political philosophy from those who do 
not take it in their professional or semi-profes- 
sional work; (2) culture along those lines most 
likely to be neglected in the specialization of one's 
professional work, and intended to keep one alive 
to the general status and trend of all the chief de- 
partments of human activity; (3) the develop- 
ment of those non-professional specialties or in- 
terests which we all possess to a greater or less 
degree. It often happens that a great measure 
of personal enjoyment and of general benevolence 
comes from the pursuit of a line of work in no 

269 



THE PROFESSIONAL STAGE 

direct way connected with the ordinary duties of 
one's chosen profession. 

Examples.— Lord Bacon was by profession a 
lawyer and a judge; Grote and Niebuhr, the his- 
torians, were bankers; John Stuart Mill and 
Charles Lamb were employees of the East India 
House; Schiller was a surgeon, and Oliver Wen- 
dell Holmes, a physician. Many statesmen of 
eminence have won distinction in the world of 
letters, like Disraeli, the Earl of Derby, Lord 
Lytton, Gladstone, Henry Cabot Lodge, and 
Theodore Roosevelt. On the other hand, men 
of eminence in literary and educational callings 
have won renown in statesmanship and diplo- 
macy — literary men like Matthew Arnold, John 
Hay, Lamartine, and Guizot; and heads of edu- 
cational institutions, like Witherspoon of Prince- 
ton, Garfield of Hiram, White of Cornell, Angell 
of the University of Michigan, and Lord Salis- 
bury of Oxford. With no less degree of 
ability, Cincinnatus and Israel Putnam each left 
his plow to lead an army on to victory; and 
George Washington turned from his ancestral 
estate to become, " First in war, first in peace, and 
first in the hearts of his countrymen." Scores of 

270 



PRINCIPLES GOVERNING 

Other examples might be added from all the va- 
rious walks of life, but the task is left open for 
inspiration and suggestion. Every educational 
worker ought to verify by personal investiga- 
tions, and to grasp in its full meaning, this last 
significant truth — that general culture activity 
is the third great department of a fidly developed 
life. 



271 



CHAPTER IX. 

SUMMARY 

General Summary. — This comprehends, in sub- 
stance, the basic outHnes of the science of study. 
Much that might have been contributed to a more 
thorough discussion has been omitted — such, for 
instance, as the periods of predominancy of the 
senses, of the imagination, and of memory 
in childhood — in the beHef that such features 
can best be considered in discussions Hmited to 
their particular periods. The dominant aim 
throughout has been to focus attention upon only 
the chief distinguishing periods of a human life, 
as they must be dealt with from an educational 
standpoint. With this in view, the organic basis 
and the organic structure of a rational scheme of 
study have been investigated, and the great stages 
of student life and the great departments of study 
material somewhat fully outlined, with their re- 
spective characteristics, functions, and values. On 
the principal features there can be no confusion, 

272 



EDUCATIONAL CREED 

and, it is believed, no dispute. On matters of de- 
tail, such as the approximate length of the differ- 
ent stages of study and the year-limits of the pe- 
riod in the student's life which they should oc- 
cupy, there may be, and doubtless will be, much 
difference of opinion; but that is not material to 
the present purpose. Matters of that kind must 
be determined by the facilities and by the quality 
of instruction obtaining at the particular institu- 
tion and also by the intellectual status of the 
individual student. It is enough if this discus- 
sion shall be found of service in helping to mark 
out the great fields of educational work and to 
make clear that the problem of education is a 
scientific problem capable of scientific solution. 

Educational Creed. — The gist of an organic 
scheme of educational work may be stated in the 
following fundamental propositions : 

( 1 ) That human society is permeated by a 
Divine purpose that is gradually leading human- 
ity toward an ideal destiny. 

(2) That each human life is, or ought to be, 
the embodiment of a purpose in harmony with 
the Divine social purpose. 

(3) That a life purpose implies a life work. 



273 



SUMMARY 

(4) That the nature of each individual's life 
work is determined by heredity and environ- 
ments. 

(5) That the best preparation for life work is 
obtained through a preliminary period of study. 

(6) That, as man is an organic being devel- 
oping by gradual, organic growth, this whole pe- 
riod of student life should be organic. 

(7) That the character and length of the stu- 
dent period should be determined by the status 
of the individual and by the sociological demands. 

(8) That, in all stages of the student period, 
the character of the study material should corre- 
spond to the relative development of life purpose. 

(9) That the chief aim of study is to develop 
successful professional workers, in the highest 
sense. 

(10) That society is so organized as to cause 
the student to be fitted for trained social service 
in fields of activities correlated to his life work, 
while he is being prepared for his professional 
life work. 

(11) That most persons feel an active interest 
in certain matters in no way connected with their 
professional work, and often achieve great good 

274 



EDUCATIONAL CREED 

along such lines, necessitating recognition in the 
scheme of student life. 

(12) That, consequently, a complete education 
involves, (a) a broad and thorough training for 
one's chosen life work; (b) a thorough training 
for social service in one's semi-professional ac- 
tivities; and (c) a liberal course in general cul- 
ture and in such non-professional subjects as are 
of special interest to him. 



^75 



Appropriating a Classic 

Having read a book, are you prepared to declare 
that you have made it really your own? Can you 
discuss it or write about it in a thoroughly intelli- 
gent and comprehensive way, as if you had really 
sized it up completely? 

There are many text-books on rhetoric, many his- 
tories of literature, some annotated editions contain- 
ing directions for the study of particular books. But 
so far no work has appeared which provides system- 
atic instruction in the study of literature itself, ap- 
plicable to every classic, let us say, or to any classic. 

Such a book we now have ready. It is entitled 
How to Study Literature, It is a guide to the study of 
literary productions. Taking up Narrative Poetry 
first, an outline is given, in the form of questions, 
which will lead the student to comprehend the sub- 
ject matter, to analyze the structure, to study the 
characters, the descriptions, the style, and the metre — 
of such a work for example as Tennyson's "Princess" 
or Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner." Next follows 
Lyric Poetry, with questions for the study of the 
thought, the mood, the style, the metre; and sug- 
gestions for comparative study and collateral reading. 
In a similar way the drama, the essay, the oration 
and the novel are taken up, and questions given which 
will lead to a full comprehension of the work studied. 

The author is a successful teacher in one of the 
great normal schools. The book grew up in the class 
room, and so is practical in every detail, not only 
adapted for class use in schools, but also the very thing 
for literary societies, reading circles, and fireside study. 

The list of terms it contains to designate any 
literary quality or characteristic one may wish to 
describe, is alone worth having. 

How to Study Literature 

Price y^ cents, postpaid 
HINDS & NOBLE, Publishers of 

Commencement Parts (all kinds), $1.50 

Palmer's New Parliamentary Manual, 75 cents 

How to Attract and Hold an Audience, $1.00 

31-33-35 West I5th Street New York City 

Sikoolbooki 0/ all ptibliihers at one ttore 



